WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University researchers have designed two simple LED lighting strategies to increase yield and reduce energy costs for the vertical farming sector of indoor agriculture.

The close-canopy and focused-lighting strategies developed by PhD candidate Fatemeh Sheibani and professor Cary Mitchell, both in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in Purdue’s College of Agriculture, capitalize on LED lighting’s special properties.

“One is that they are relatively cool at the emitting surface, in contrast with other lighting choices,” Sheibani said. Thus, the lighting system works closer to plants without scorching them. LEDs are also current driven, unlike many energy-intensive, voltage-driven lighting sources.

Their work is part of a project called OptimIA (Optimizing Indoor Agriculture). The project, led by Michigan State University, includes collaborators at Purdue, University of Arizona and Ohio State University. OptimIA is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative.

Fatemeh Sheibani, a PhD candidate in horticulture and landscape architecture, examines lettuce plants in a controlled environment chamber using LED lighting. Sheibani’s research focuses on finding the best strategy for using LEDs in vertical farming that will maximize crop yield and decrease production costs associated with lighting. (Purdue Agricultural Communications photo/Jessica Kerkoff) Download image

In vertical agriculture, produce grows using LEDs as the sole lighting source (see YouTube video).

“It is the fastest-growing sector of controlled-environment ag,” Mitchell said. “There are new startups going on in urban and para-urban areas all the time, and worldwide.”

Fueled by an enthusiastic investment sector, the U.S. is a worldwide industry leader. But labor and energy costs, totaling about 60% of running an indoor farm, threaten the startups’ future. Inflation and rising energy costs have made an already fragile industry even more so. Startup costs are also high, both for land in urban areas and for LED lighting system installment.

But indoor farms can easily lower energy use while achieving their usual yield with the close-canopy-lighting strategy. Or, they can increase yield while maintaining their previous energy use. Indoor farmers can dim the voltage of a 1,000-watt, high-pressure sodium lamp with a rheostat, but that merely turns the energy into heat without any savings.

“It’s hidden energy,” Mitchell said. But with the LEDs, the current flow can be reduced, and light output is reduced proportionally.

Close-canopy lighting works because LEDs shine in all directions, like the sun. At standard plant/light separation distances, significant light streaming at wide angles over the plants misses them entirely. But with reduced separation distances, the plants absorb light that would otherwise go to waste.

Michael Gildersleeve, a graduate student in Purdue’s Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, works with lettuce plants grown under close-canopy LED lighting to maximize energy efficiency and crop yield. (Purdue Agricultural Communications photo/Tom Campbell) Download image

Today, indoor farms can affordably offer only leafy greens and culinary herbs to consumers. Their quick growth allows for many cropping cycles year-round, unlike produce grown in gardens or fields.

And once they reach high-cost urban areas, indoor-produced salad kits and leafy greens might sell for $16 or $17 a pound.

“What they sell you in the store in a clamshell or as an individual plant is just a fraction of a pound,” Mitchell said.

LEDs are the lighting system of choice for indoor farming because of their relative energy efficiency and long lifetimes, Sheibani said. But improved LEDs also have high photon efficacy, meaning that electric energy is more readily converted to light that plants can use efficiently.

Still, inefficient capture of LED light reduces their benefits. Many indoor farmers, for instance, mistakenly believe that they can place their LEDs anywhere. But Sheibani and Mitchell noticed both in vertical farms and in smaller-scale experiments that the light fell not only on the plants but also on the walls and walkways. By reducing the distance between the LED system and the leaf canopy, the researchers were able to reduce such wasted light.

“We can improve canopy photon capture efficiency, as we call it, as long as we use LEDs correctly,” Sheibani said. “Canopy photon capture efficiency is the fraction of photons that reach the photosynthesizing machinery of the plants.”

Sheibani measures waste via a ratio of plant growth to LED electrical energy consumption. The resulting energy utilization efficiency compares grams of fresh or dry biomass yield per kilowatt hour of energy consumed by the LED lighting system.

“The higher the grams of fresh or dry biomass produced per kilowatt hour, the better it is,” she said. And both of Purdue’s tested scenarios found that the closest separation distance had the highest energy utilization efficiency.

Sheibani and Mitchell also are testing an energy-saving, focused-lighting approach that relies on a custom-made LED system with selective controls. How do small, individual, widely separated plants fare under slowly spreading beams of light rather than full coverage all the time?

“When seedlings emerge after germination, the very small plants are wide apart,” Mitchell said.

“It takes two weeks for them to grow together and close a canopy of baby greens. Everything in between is mostly wasted light until then.”

Sheibani and Mitchell’s system minimizes that waste. When plants are still small, they use full-coverage LED lighting inefficiently, Sheibani said. But it is possible to save energy in the earlier growth stages with focused lighting.

“Then when the plants are at the stage that they can use light efficiently, we can upgrade to provide the optimum amount,” she said.

OptimIA offers more information in free video presentations at OptimIAUniversity and the Indoor Ag Science Café.

“There’s a lot of excitement about indoor ag and people are jumping into it,” Mitchell said. “But they don’t really have the secret for long-term profitability yet. That’s where academic research such as the OptimIA project comes in to help.”

Writer: Steve Koppes

Media contact: Maureen Manier, mmanier@purdue.edu

Sources: Cary Mitchell, cmitchel@purdue.edu

Fatemeh Sheibani, fsheiban@purdue.edu.

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu

In these uncertain times of the coronavirus, food shortages and food inequity, the concept of growing food in urban locations is gaining greater interest. The lack of access to fresh produce and the existence of food deserts in major cities are spotlighting the need for more communities, organizations and individuals to look for ways to help resolve these issues.

Expanding urban agriculture education

Purdue Extension has offered an urban agriculture program in Marion and Allen Counties since 2016. Indianapolis in Marion County and Fort Wayne in Allen County are the state’s largest metropolitan areas. The extension’s Urban Agriculture Certificate program classroom portion ran from October through March. Workshops were conducted during the spring and summer. About 20 people participated annually in Marion County and 10 participated in the Allen County programs.

“The people who attended these classroom programs included experienced urban farmers and some who were looking to get started in urban farming,” said Nathan Shoaf, urban agriculture coordinator at Purdue Extension. “In Marion County there were a few participants who were already doing urban agriculture. Some of them operated well-known neighborhood market stands. Others used the program as a motivator to expand community gardens. Many people who participated wanted to learn more about growing at home to feed their families or their local neighborhoods through community gardens.

“Some of the program’s participants struggled with the required weekly classroom attendance and the time commitment necessary to complete the program. Because of the amount of time and effort that was put forth by the extension staff to conduct the program, we were trying to figure out what we could do to get more people involved.”

Increasing access to a wider audience

During the four years the classroom program was offered the Purdue Extension staff had the opportunity to tweak the content and make revisions.

“We have had time to respond to the evaluations that we provided the students, responding to their feedback and tailoring some of the program modules to better meet their needs,” Shoaf said. “We gained from the students in regards to if there was a particular interest or if someone wanted to learn more about a particular topic or concept. We also received questions and comments about offering more courses online.”

In September 2019 the extension staff began working on a four course online certification program, Urban Agriculture Certificate, that would be available in September 2020. Two courses have been released and are available for completion. The first course, “Growing Guide for Healthy Crops,” launched in March.

“As we were working through the courses we figured the growing guide was something that people would want for the spring when they are starting their projects,” Shoaf said. “We put more emphasis on that course to make sure that it was available in March. We had about 15 people sign up for that course when it was first released.”

A second course, “Site Assessment for Fertile Ground,” was scheduled to be released in April.

“The second course focuses on soil contamination risks and discusses raised beds and best management practices to mitigate potential contaminant concerns and land use agreements,” Shoaf said. “Some people only want soil health information or site design. We used that feedback to help guide us in terms of course structure so that we could make sure those topics are complementary, but also separate.

“We are finding some of the participants are interested in site assessment and they may not even be from an urban ag background. They may have an environmental consulting or engineering background or are interested in brownfields or site redevelopment. One of the consequences of making these courses available individually is it brings new people to the table and makes them aware of these kinds of programs and urban ag in general.”

Focus on soil health, organic practices

The third course, “Agricultural Site Design and Soil Health,” is schedule to launch on May 18.

This course focuses on site design concepts in terms of designing an urban farm or community garden and covers soil health principles and techniques for achieving soil health, composting, vermicomposting, organic production, water management and irrigation topics.

“A lot of the organic production concerns and questions tie in with the soil health component,” Shoaf said.” Those topics fit together well for this module.”

Based on past coarse evaluations and input from farmers, most are interested in organic management techniques.

“We don’t shy away from discussing conventional agricultural practices,” Shoaf said. “Often times when I’m talking to farmers, they are really interested in determining site assessment and whether or not they can grow on a particular piece of land. Most want to be productive in a year or two. They want to know how to achieve this and ask for recommendations.

“I may have them collaborate with some of our extension specialists to make sure they’re achieving their soil health needs and fertility. We can also help them plan long term with organic amendments and compost applications and make sure they can find reliable suppliers. We stress the importance of an annual soil test to make sure these amendments are not being over-applied.”

The final course, “Roadmap for Strong Roots,” is scheduled to be available on June 22. This course focuses on crafting a mission and vision, asset-based community development team building, SMART goals and funding.

“The Roadmap is really the first course that we recommend that participants take,” Shoaf said. “Even though we recommend this course first, participants are allowed to start in the order that they want.”

Online courses offer flexibility

Shoaf said the certificate program has generated a lot of questions from people who want to receive additional information as the courses become available.

“That is a good sign to me that shows there is interest in the program and not just from people in state,” he said. “Besides in-state inquiries, we have received inquiries from people in 13 states and even Cambodia. We have also reached a broader in-state audience besides our two largest metropolitan areas. We wanted to demonstrate that the interest in urban ag doesn’t only happen in major metropolitan areas and anyone could be dealing with urban soil challenges.”

Once all the classes are available, they don’t have to be taken in any specific order.

“Some of the feedback we were getting was people wanted to pick what they needed and move on,” Shoaf said. “We found students might be engaged in one particular topic area or one module and that might be all that they need for their operation or their goals. We wanted to enable them to dictate what they wanted and how they wanted to navigate through the program.”

Shoaf said the extension staff has tried to balance the courses.

“There is a lot of video content that we have created during the last couple of years,” he said. “There may be people who have less experience in some areas than others so they may need to pause a video more often or need to take more notes.

“At the end of each course there is an assessment quiz that participants must complete at least 80 percent. Each quiz is about 20 questions each. There is also a final evaluation for the certification program. The evaluation can help us learn what works and what doesn’t. This input from the students will be used to improve the program.”

For more information on these courses and the Urban Ag Certificate, go to https://www.purdue.edu/dffs/urbanag/programs/urban-ag-certificate/

For more: Nathan Shoaf, Purdue Extension, West Lafayette, IN 47907; nlshoaf@purdue.edu.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas.

Urban agriculture focuses on raising food in urban or suburban areas. These efforts are often launched to help meet the nutritional needs of a community and practiced through such creative means as finding ways to optimize limited space. Cities and towns that support urban agriculture may see increased food security, youth development, small business development, reduced blight in neighborhoods and increased quality of life.

“Urban farmers throughout Indiana are interested in enhancing their farming operations. Purdue Extension’s fully online certificate program provides students the flexibility to earn their certificate from anywhere, anytime,” said Nathan Shoaf, urban agriculture state coordinator for Purdue Extension.

The certificate program will serve Hoosier cities and communities around the country. Purdue Extension educators crafted a curriculum that affords participants a heightened understanding of the challenges urban agriculturalists face, from issues of soil contamination to land access and workforce cultivation.

Students are able to take courses in any order, start at any time and have 60 days to complete each course. The full certificate can be earned within a year. Courses include road map for strong roots, agricultural site design and soil health, site assessment for fertile ground, and growing guide for healthy crops.

Students can register for individual courses or the full certificate at http://www.eventreg.purdue.edu/online/urbanagcert. More information about the program can be found at: https://www.purdue.edu/dffs/urbanag/programs/urban-ag-certificate/.

Writer: Emma Ea Ambrose, 765-494-2406, eeambros@purdue.edu

Source: Nathan Shoaf, 775-496-1930, nlshoafp@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: 765-494-8415;

Maureen Manier, Department Head, mmanier@purdue.edu  

This month’s Indoor Ag Science Café was about the history and current technology status of indoor farming. The beginning seems to be in Syracuse, NY, where General Electric developed an indoor hydroponic farm funded by DoD in 1973. Then there was a large commercial indoor farm for leafy greens in Dekalb, IL, owned by General Mills, which was closed in 1990s. The longest survived may be the one in Japan (TS Farm by Kewpie Co.) where they use HID lamps and aeroponics since 1989. Most significant technological improvement are two ways – one in lighting and another in rack/shelving systems. Dr. Mitchell also introduced the contributions that NASA indoor farming studies made over past 30+ years, as one of the contributors in the space.

Indoor Ag Science Café is supported by USDA SCRI grant program and designed to create a precompetitive communication platform among scientists and indoor farming professionals. The Café presentations are available from YouTube channel.   Contact Chieri Kubota at the Ohio State University (Kubota.10@osu.edu) to be a Café member to participate. 

Join Urban Ag News, Hort Americas and Current, powered by GE, for the inaugural Great Lakes Ag Tech Summit on Monday, September 23. The summit will be held at at the historic Nela Park campus in Cleveland, Ohio.

The one-day event features keynote presentations and panel discussions from leading researchers and innovative growers in the Great Lakes region. Attendees will be able to connect with growers, scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs as we shape the future of food and move controlled environment agriculture forward.

Due to the fact that Nela Park is a secure facility, we cannot register guests the day of the event.
Registration will close on Thursday, September 19.

Keynotes

Achieving Best-in-Class Economics for a Commercial Vertical Farm

Austin Webb, CEO and co-founder of mega-vertical farm Fifth Season (formerly RoBotany)

Austin Webb is the CEO and co-founder of Fifth Season (powered by RoBotany), a robotic indoor vertical farming company based in Pittsburgh. Austin holds a BA in Finance from Wofford College and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie. Austin served as an Investment Banking Associate for FBR Capital Markets, where he caught the entrepreneurial fever. Austin originally hails from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but plans on keeping roots in Pittsburgh to achieve Fifth Season’s mission.

Fifth Season (powered by RoBotany) is a robotics and AI company with Carnegie Mellon University roots that builds and operates highly efficient commercial-scale vertical farms in urban communities. Fifth Season’s newest commercial-scale farm will open in early 2020 in Braddock, an historic steelmaking community in Pittsburgh, continuing the city’s legacy of industry-defining innovation. Fifth Season’s proprietary robotics and artificial intelligence technology profitably grows leafy greens and herbs for local grocery retailers, restaurants and consumers at unprecedented low costs, all year-round. The company designed its modular farms for simple, quick installation and is currently siting locations for similar farms in cities throughout the U.S.

Optimizing Plant Production Under a Controlled Environment – Research and Education Programs at the Ohio State University

Dr. Chieri Kubota, Leading controlled environment agriculture researcher and professor at Ohio State University

Dr. Kubota’s research mission is to serve in the development of science and technology in the area of controlled environment agriculture (CEA). Her projects are in an interdisciplinary area that encompasses plant physiology and horticultural engineering to enhance understanding and efficiency of CEA plant production systems such as greenhouses, warehouses (vertical farms), and growth chambers.

Vertical Farm Production of Young Plants, From Hemp to Tomatoes

John Jackson, CEO and co-founder of the USA’s first commercial vertical farm producing seedlings and transplants for field and the greenhouse, the Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems, Inc.

John is the CEO of Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems, Inc. (SIGS) born from an USDA funded industry-academic partnership with Grafted Growers, the University of Arizona, and North Carolina State University. John is an award-winning entrepreneur and University of Arizona alum with an MBA from the Eller College of Management. John has successfully launched investor and grant funded businesses and operated tech based companies to early stage revenue. Born in Compton, California, John continues his grandfather’s legacy as a sharecropper of tomatoes in rural Texas.

SIGS gives plants what they need to express the features that the market wants.

Sustainable Indoor Growing Systems, Inc. (SIGS) is a clean agricultural technology company that uses controlled environment agriculture to induce young generic plants to express enhanced physiological traits customers want – while increasing the economics of propagation. This is made possible by scientific discovery and development of unique growing recipes which are learned and enabled only by the SIGS multi-layered growing platform and architecture.

Are Consumers and Growers Putting Dollars in the Local Food Industry? Insights on Technologies and Preferences

Dr. Ariana Torres, Ag Economist and Assistant Professor at Purdue University

Dr. Torres’ background combines field experience in agriculture with theoretical and applied research on agricultural economics. She has worked on projects looking at the impact of marketing choices on technology adoption for fruit and vegetable growers; the economic implications of social capital on entrepreneurship; and the role of community support on the resilience of small business after disasters.

Dr. Torres uses economic analysis to support the economic viability of the horticulture industry. Her research focuses on the intersection between the horticulture industry and marketing decisions. Her goal is to conduct innovative outreach and applied research in specialty crops marketing, with the end of promoting economic sustainability for horticultural businesses.

Dr. Torres is currently working on a project evaluating the market, economics, and potential barriers to produce export-quality dried apricots from smallholders of southern Tajikistan. She is also working on evaluating the adoption of a solar dehydrator for selected dried specialty crops in Indiana and Georgia. Lastly, she is collecting foundational data and establishing long-term pricing reports for Indiana farmers markets.

How technology is changing controlled environment agriculture – from hemp to berries

Chris Higgins, General Manager of Hort Americas and Founder/Owner of Urban Ag News

Chris Higgins is General Manager of Hort Americas, LLC a wholesale supply company focused on all aspects of the horticultural industries. He is also owner of UrbanAgNews.com and was a founding partner of the Foundation for the Development of Controlled Environment Agriculture and the International Congress on Controlled Environment Agriculture in Panama. With over 20 years of industry experience, Chris is dedicated to the commercial horticulture industry and is inspired by the current opportunities for continued innovation in the field of controlled environment agriculture.

Panelists

We have added a panel discussion with industry experts to the agenda!

Paul Brentlinger is President of CropKing Inc., based out of Lodi, OH. He has extensive knowledge of growing high-quality food products and is a controlled environmental agriculture expert who has spoken at the University of Florida, Indoor-Ag Con, Cultivate and a variety of other conferences. Having been in business for 35 years, CropKing is the leader in commercial hydroponics and growing systems, with many techniques and practices applicable to a wide variety of crops. Under Paul’s leadership, CropKing consults for new operations, manufactures greenhouses and hydroponic systems, and distributes a variety of products in supports of both cannabis and produce growers around the globe.

Location

The Institute at Nela Park

1975 Noble Rd. Cleveland, OH 44112

Date & Time

Monday, September 23, 2019
9 am to 4pm

Registration

Early bird admission price is $30 if registration occurs before Sept. 16.
Regular admission: $50

Hotel

Hyatt Legacy Village
24665 Cedar Rd
Lyndhurst, OH 44124

The rate is $129 for the night of 9/22/19.

• Call the toll-free number at 1-888-492-8847 for Hyatt Place Reservations and ask for the “Great Lakes Ag Tech Summit” or code G-GLGT

• OR use this link https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/ohio/hyatt-place-cleveland-lyndhurst-legacy-village/clezl?corp_id=G-GLGT

About Urban Ag News
The mission of Urban Ag News is to be the leading science communicator for the commercial hydroponics, greenhouse vegetable, vertical farming and urban agriculture industries. Urban Ag News educates readers and provide an understanding of the industry’s latest technologies and luminaries.

About Current, powered by GE
Current, powered by GE, offers cutting-edge innovations in horticultural lighting. We’ve spent years perfecting our lighting technology and working with growers, systems integrators and plant scientists to establish the specific needs of the horticulture industry. The result? LED grow systems that maximize the potential of greenhouses and indoor farms by enabling efficient growth at an industrial scale.

When it comes to technology, most controlled environment growers are looking for ways to produce their crops as efficiently and as economically as possible. Purdue University horticulture and agricultural economics professor Ariana Torres is focused on the marketing and economics of specialty crops, especially those grown in controlled environments.

“Because of my educational background in controlled environment I focus more on that type of production,” Torres said. “I have three appointments at the university. I teach entrepreneurship. I do research on technology adoption for specialty crop operations, including vegetables, ornamentals, herbs and organic agriculture. I also investigate how consumers perceive grower technologies. My extension appointment allows me to bring the findings from my research to growers and other stakeholders.

“I collect information on farmers markets every week. I have an extension program called Horticulture Business with a website that is hosted by Purdue University. I am also working on developing financial tools like online enterprise budgets and financial calculators where growers can learn about risk and the break-even analysis of various crops.”

As a graduate student at Purdue, Torres studied controlled environment production learning that light requirements and nutrition not only vary by crop, but also by variety.
“I can transfer those learning skills to other crops,” she said. “Ninety percent of my current research is on edible crops and 10 percent is on ornamentals. This split also reflects what is happening in the industry. Greenhouse growers and ornamental growers are slowly transitioning to edible crops as well. Many hydroponic systems that were developed for greenhouses and poly houses were designed for ornamental production.

“Of the specialty crop growers I’m working with, 50 percent are controlled environment and 50 percent are outdoor field growers. I initially started working with field crop growers and have transitioned more into controlled environment systems.”

Focused on cost-efficient technology

Torres is focusing on how growers can adopt cost-efficient technologies. She is particularly interested in assisting growers in accessing information about the cost efficiency of technologies.

“I am also interested in finding out how these technologies are perceived by consumers,” she said. “I am starting to study consumers’ perceptions and their willingness to pay for specialty crops.

“One project I’m particularly interested in studying is related to value-added technologies. There are specialty crop growers who sell wholesale in bulk while other growers cut, wash, dry and label products. Value-added can be defined as any physical or labeled transformation of a product. I’m evaluating the transformation of the identity of a crop. Anything related to whether a crop is non-GMO, organic, pesticide-free, locally grown or domestically produced.”

Differences in operation size, customer base

Torres said that small and large specialty crop growing operations have very different market channels.

“The goal of most large operations is to produce large volumes,” she said. “That involves a lot of efficiency—producing the highest value crops that can provide the highest profits selling large volumes to one or two customers.

“Small hydroponic growers are not only looking for a higher profit, they are also looking to access different market channels than large operations. They tend to diversify their number of crops and their number of market channels. For example, small operations tend to sell to restaurants, farmers markets, independent grocery stores, community supported agriculture and they may also sell online.”

Torres said once small operations incorporate technology they tend to stick with it for as long as possible to recover their investment.

“At small hydroponic operations there tends to be less technology and lower investments,” she said. “They also tend to grow more edible crops, including tomatoes and other small fruit, and try to capitalize on higher prices for locally-grown hydroponic crops.

“Large operations are aiming to produce fewer crops and larger volumes with potentially smaller profit margins than small operations. These large operations grow fewer crops and their technologies tend to be more expensive. For example, large growers tend to use more expensive sensors, substrates, irrigation systems, lighting fixtures, and they are usually more willing to experiment with newer technologies. These operations also tend to be more efficient as a result of technological efficiencies.”

Automation limitations

Torres said Europe still leads the way in agricultural automation.

“More technology will be coming from Europe, but I’m not sure if it will come from European companies,” she said. “There are more U.S. researchers and companies doing research on automation and its impact on controlled environment agriculture.

“The Dutch have been very innovative on controlled environment technologies for automation. One of the successes for the Dutch growers is that they are very specialized. A grower has one crop, two crops at most. If a grower is producing one crop like tomatoes, then automation makes a lot of sense. In the U.S. it’s more difficult because growers are more likely to produce a larger number of different crops. The challenge is when growers produce multiple crops like baby kale, microgreens and tomatoes. These are crops that have different production requirements, different stages and different pest pressures. In regards to automation, what works in Europe may not necessarily work in the U.S.”

Factors affecting profitability

Torres said the type of structure and facility can also impact investment and profitability.
“With hoop houses there is usually less technology and fewer investments compared to greenhouses,” she said. “There also tends to be less technology and lower investments at small operations. If these small growers capitalize on higher prices for hydroponic crops, they can be profitable relatively quickly.”

Torres said indoor vertical farms tend to take longer to be profitable because of the startup costs. There can be a large investment in technology.

“Even though greenhouse growers typically need more employees than vertical indoor farms because their operations are larger, most vertical farms are dealing with a higher level of technology requiring more qualified labor resulting in higher labor costs,” she said.

“Energy costs are also going to be higher for vertical indoor farms. The reason profitability is harder to reach for large indoor farms in the first and second year is a reflection of the investment and operational costs.

“Customer base also impacts profitability. A bag of lettuce may cost $4 at a farmers market and $5 at Whole Foods. The prices are not that different considering that selling at a farmers market allows a grower to capture a higher share of the consumers’ dollars. Also considering that operational costs for growers selling wholesale are very different, it is evident why profitability is harder to reach for large growers. If growers sell to wholesalers, the price they receive can be considerably lower than the price paid by consumers. In addition, labor costs per square foot tend to be higher for indoor farms and operational costs can be higher. However, these indoor farms can produce a lot of product so that they are able to supply large volumes.”

Vertical farms can be profitable

Torres said she has been able to collect limited information on indoor vertical farms.
“Small vertical farms tend to sell to independent grocery stores and local farmers markets,” she said. “The vertical farms I have seen in the Midwest tend to be small and their level of technology they usually have built themselves and/or recycled a lot of equipment. They can be very profitable because they are small and are able to capitalize on high prices for locally-grown crops like leafy greens and microgreens.

“Even though these vertical farms are producing on a small scale, they can be very profitable because they are rotating crops every four to six weeks. They can have as many as 12 crop cycles, which is a lot of production.”

Torres said where these indoor vertical farms start to run into trouble is when they look to scale up production.

“When small operations scale up, they are going to become a full time job and may need to start hiring employees,” she said. “Once they start to scale up because of increased demand for their product or just because they want to expand their business, that’s when they are likely to run into financial stress. They would need to invest in more technology and their customer base is going to change, moving from direct-to-consumer markets to wholesale or retail. When growers move into bigger market channels and start selling to larger retailers and wholesalers, their business model changes and with that their financial performance.

“With indoor vertical farms, scaling up may involve a lot of investment, especially going from a small to large operation. In field agriculture, it is much easier to scale up to increase profit and revenues. For large indoor vertical farms, for the first three to five years depending on how much money is invested, they are going to just break even or maybe generate negative numbers. Those indoor farms that are able to succeed during the first three years usually have investors with deeper pockets who are willing to see the operations through the long term.”

For more: Ariana Torres, Purdue University, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, West Lafayette, IN 47907; (765) 494-8781; torres2@purdue.edu; https://www.purdue.ag/hortbusiness.

This article is property of Urban Ag News and was written by David Kuack, a freelance technical writer from Fort Worth, TX.

Sessions will focus on climate, insect management and pollinators, biostimulants and much more.

Speakers include Dr. Annette Wszelaki from Tennessee, Dr. Lori Hoagland from Purdue and Dr. Matt Ruark from Univ. of Wisconsin, and Purdue’s own team of experts.

If you are interested, please visit https://www.inhortcongress.org/

Learn about Horticultural LED Grow Lights from the experts. Dr. Roberto Lopez, Dr Cary Mitchell and Students explore LED Grow Lights as both a sole source and supplemental source of growth light for commercially grown crops.

Trials included: production of plugs in multilayer chamber using LEDs (sole-source), LED photo-periodic lighting of annuals, end of production LED lighting to enhance foliage color, and tower intra-canopy (interlighting) supplemental LED lighting of tomatoes.

Video created and produced by Urban Ag News. If you are interested in having a video created about your organization please contact us directly.

Dear Grower,

We are horticultural scientists doing academic research in controlled-environment agriculture, including indoor as well as greenhouse production of ornamental and food specialty crops. In order for us to better address the perceived needs of the commercial protected horticulture industry, we are seeking your opinion regarding important issues that affect the productivity and profitability of your business. The survey is completely anonymous in that we will have no idea who responds to it. The data will come back as a number of respondents in a given category. Please click on the link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7GHL5NF and give us your input regarding these important matters. A summary of the survey will be distributed back to this anonymous (to us) contact list at a future date.

It will take less than 5 minutes to respond to our survey but could keep us busy doing research for the next 5 years!

Sincerely,

Dr. Cary Mitchell, Purdue University
Dr. Chieri Kubota, University of Arizona
Dr. Erik Runkle, Michigan State University

Click here to take the survey!