Indoor vertical farms are the new kid on the block, with commercial production farms being a little more than a decade old. The vertical farming market is projected to reach USD 7.3 billion by 2025 from USD 2.9 billion in 2020; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.2% during the forecast period. ¹

One vertical farm startup has raised over $250 million, and another has a valuation of over $1 billion. Are vertical farms hype, urban legend, or a good investment? Conducting thorough due diligence by a qualified expert is critical when considering an investment in a vertical farm.  

Here are a few pointers to consider when exploring investment candidates.

Business Model

A good business model is a start to creating a profitable vertical farm. The model should include: where the farm will be located, who is the anchor customer, what crop will be grown and what volume, how produce will be packaged, how it will be distributed, and how it will be sold. In addition, it should speak to the type of farm that will be built- a turnkey operation “seed to supermarket” vs. a grow farm, that contracts germination, packing and sales. Startups always take longer than expected to get up and running, make sure there is a grace period built into the plan for initial operations and distribution challenges.

Management Team

After you have developed the winning business model, you need a qualified team to execute the business plan. Now that vertical farming has been around for several years, it’s easier to find qualified people with experience operating these types of farms. The C Suite should consist of professionals experienced in business administration and a technical team with horticultural production experience. This includes a senior grower, production manager, food safety manager, chief ag engineer, and sales manager. Depending on the farm; for example, a highly automated farm could look to related industries to find an operations manager with experience in a mechanized food production facility.

Marketing and Sales

The produce market is very competitive and is referred to as “a pennies business” with tight margins and profit being made on large volume. Shrink can minimize the profitability of a vertical farm. The worst thing for any operator is throwing away crop and shrink can happen at each point of the growing chain (seeding, germination, nursery, growth, harvesting, packing, and shipping). In addition, produce is perishables having a short shelf life of 1-3 weeks. The best way to reduce shrink is to grow high-quality produce that is pre-sold. This will also yield the highest price. Having an experienced sales team with relationships with a wide variety of produce buyers is paramount to success. A well-thought-out marketing and a branding plan are also required to position your crop for the target buyer and detail how to make your brand known, such as in store samples / tastings, sponsorships, chef partnerships, merchandising…

Technology

What technology will be used in the growing operation? Will the farm be designed and built by the management team, or will they contract an experienced farm design and builder? Will they use a proven hydroponic, aeroponic, or aquaponics growing system or deploy a disruptive new technology A well-designed farm will include a seeding area, a germ room, a nursery, a growing area, a packing area, and a cooler. It will require the Temperature (T), Relative Humidity (RH), and air circulation to be monitored and controlled at each operation. At a minimum, it will require specialized equipment to control the climate, irrigation, treat nutrient water, enrich the grow room with CO₂ and control LED lights. In addition, the farm should have adequate sensors, a central data collection system with automated vales, so the delivery of all inputs can be precisely controlled. A disruptive technology can be transformative when scaling the business, increasing yields, generating profit and optimizing productivity.

Capital is the grease that lubricates the wheels of innovation. Investors continue to explore opportunities in the vertical farming market helping the industry grow. 

Investors be(a)aware, there is a lot of hype in this market and much nuance in operating a successful vertical farm that does not show up in financial projections or a business plan. A good business model, a seasoned management team, and a proven growing technology, can all add up to make a vertical farm profitable.

1.  PRNewswire, NY, Aug 17, 2020.

Robert Colangelo is the founder of Green Sense Farms Holdings, Inc. (GSF. He is an early adopter in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and has over ten years of experience with the design-build, operations and raising capital for vertical farms. 

GSF provides contract research, consulting, and farm design and build services.

Green Sense Farms has been an early adopter and pioneer when it comes to indoor vertical farming. We built our first 20,000 sq. ft. indoor vertical farm in 2012 in Portage, IN. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) has changed greatly since that first farm and so has our company. We started our journey focused on operating our indoor vegetable farm, selling lettuce, baby greens, herbs and microgreens to grocery stores and produce companies in IN, IL and MI. Since that time, we have leveraged our operating experience and evolved the company to provide contract research and farm design & build services on a global basis. 

One of our recent innovations is the development of a modular scalable growing system using our proven grow technology. We found that our standard 20,000 sq. ft. farm can be cost prohibitive in many parts of the world.  We have also seen that many vertical farm companies “start big and grow small” making right-sizing a farm the key to being profitable. 

In addition to our 20,000 sq. ft. farm we now offer a modular scalable farm system that can “start small and grow big” to meet increased demand. After spending a year studying container farms to objectively understand their strengths and weakness, we came up with a better indoor grow design that includes:

• Touchless conveyance
• Improved IPM and automated sanitization
• Higher crop density and improved economics
• Can be operated with 2 employees plus a packing team
• Computer delivery of growing inputs and climate control with improved air circulation
• Can be housed in functionally obsolete industrial buildings with minimal tenant improvements.

Our modular scalable custom farms use shipping containers as a prefabricated low-cost structure to install the individual farm components.  Components can be sold separately or as system and include: 

• Seeding line
• Germ / Nursery Room
• Grow Room
• Packing / Cooler
• Equipment Room, with CO₂, fertigator, water treatment, water storage and recirculation, HVAC, data collection, sensors and automation controls.

It’s an honor and privileged to be part of CEA and watch it evolve from an idea into an industry.   For more information on contract research or design and build services contact: 

Robert Colangelo, Founding Farmer
Green Sense Farms
Robert@greensensefarms.com

The R&D center will also be dedicated to testing new cultivars for vegetable production, and to test what botanicals can be grown indoors for nutraceuticals, and medical/biopharmaceutical production.  In addition to the R&D Center in Portage, Green Sense Farms has several new farms in development worldwide, including a working commercial farm and training center in South Bend, Indiana where students will earn while they learn; and a commercial production farm in Las Vegas dedicated to providing fresh greens to the Las Vegas Strip. Green Sense Farms also licenses its technology and builds farms for operating partners abroad, including farms in China and an upcoming project in the South Pacific.

“It’s exciting to be leading the way in a new industry. Our facility in the Midwest is an ideal spot to test emerging technologies for cold weather climates and farms in Las Vegas and the South Pacific allow us to perfect our climate control systems to cost effectively grow both in arid and humid climates. With our extensive network of industry and academic contacts we can continue to advance the industry. As long as there’s a need for locally grown, nutritious and sustainable food sources, Green Sense Farms will continue to innovate to be a market leader,” said Colangelo.

Green Sense Farms’ innovative indoor, vertical growing system means their farms can grow 365 days per year, creating perfect growing conditions, without using pesticides, or GMO seeds. Popular Science recently named Green Sense Farms to its list of the year’s 100 Greatest Inventions for the farm’s innovative sustainable farming. For more information about Green Sense Farms, visit greensensefarms.com or contact Robert Colangelo at robert@greensensefarms.com.

To meet the increasing demand for clean, safe produce in both the U.S. and China, Green Sense Farms looks to open additional vertical farming operations along with a training facility to create job-ready graduates to grow in controlled environments.

Robert Colangelo, founding farmer and CEO at Green Sense Farms, in Portage, Ind., knows what it takes to be successful in emerging markets.

“I have been very fortuitous in my career,” Colangelo said. “I have been at the forefront of three emerging markets. In the 1990s I operated one of the first companies in the Soviet Union and rode that wave of democratization and privatization of state-owned Russian businesses.

“I was at the forefront of the brownfield industry. Redeveloping contaminated properties, repositioning them for new and productive use. And now I have been lucky to be at the forefront of the emerging vertical farming market.”

Colangelo said all of the new markets he has been involved with have very similar patterns.

“They all require tenacity as the early phase of the market ebbs and flows until it reaches a critical mass,” he said. “They require flexibility and the ability to manage technology. It’s the culmination of my previous experiences that have allowed me to have a diverse amount of skills required to make vertical farming work. This is probably one of the more complex ventures I have ever undertaken, but I love it. I also have a great partner, Carl Wenz, who is a CPA and has complementary skills to mine.

“To be successful in vertical farming, you really have to understand the produce business, have a good understanding of fundamental business operations and be able to integrate many different technologies into a working system. You have to understand plant physiology, packing and post-harvest processes. And you have to have marketing and sales skills and be able to raise capital. That is a unique skill set for one person and requires an experienced team. If you’re not good at all of those areas of expertise, then you’re going to have a real challenge succeeding in the vertical farming market.”

Starting out with “big” partners

Even though Green Sense Farms has only been producing crops since 2014, the company was formed in 2012 and has been doing research and development since 2009. The company’s vertical farm operation is located in a 120,000-square-foot industrial warehouse building. It leases 20,000 square feet in a multi-tenant building.

“We have two grow rooms,” Colangelo said. “Each room measures 60- by 60- by 25-feet tall. One room is dedicated to lettuce. It has nine vertical towers that are 14 levels high. The second room has seven towers with 10 levels in which we produce baby greens, including kale, arugula, bok choy, watercress, upland cress and culinary herbs. About 80 percent of the product goes to grocery stores and 20 percent goes to produce companies, which service restaurants and institutions.”

Colangelo said in order for his company to be a major player in the vertical farming industry required picking “big” partners.

“We looked at lighting and picked a lighting partner,” he said. “This allowed us to focus on building the best vertical farm and our lighting partner can provide us with constant R&D on LED lights. We picked a fertigation partner that could take a well-defined fertigator from the greenhouse industry and customize and tweak it so that it would work in an indoor vertical farm and create the automation controls that link all the different systems together. We formed a partnership with a climate control company so that we just don’t treat our air and filter it and cool it, but we also adjust the humidity because plants transpire and put a lot of moisture in the air. Lastly, we are working with a seed company that together with our LED company can breed non-GMO seeds that grow best under LED lights in indoor controlled environments. This enables us to not only maximize our yields, but through using the right seed with the right LED light recipe, we can double our yields and productivity. This is complex stuff and you have to pay attention to the details. And you have to be at a scale that is big enough to make this economical.”

Expansion in the U.S.

Green Sense Farms is in the process of building additional farms in the U.S.

“We have formed a partnership with Ivy Tech Community College in South Bend, Ind., to build a hands-on training center on the campus,” Colangelo said. “This will be a working commercial farm.

“One of the challenges in this industry is that there are not enough trained people. So we are creating our own “farm team” to mine talent. The training center will be similar to McDonald’s Hamburger U. in Oak Brook, Ill. We plan to train 15 students every six months. At the end of the six months the students are job-ready to work in the ag industry and to also work in vertical farms. We call it “earn to learn.” The students will be paid to work at the farm. This facility will be larger than the one we are operating in Portage.”

Green Sense Farms is also in discussion to put a vertical farm at distribution centers in the Indianapolis area operated by grocery store chains.

“Our goal is to blanket the Midwest,” Colangelo said. “Our strategy is to put these vertical farms at the points of consumption and distribution. We are planning to build farms at perishable food distribution centers and at institutional campuses, including hospitals, colleges, corporate campuses and military bases.

“After Chicago, Indianapolis is the next up-and-coming Midwest city. There is a great food scene. It is also an entrance to the South. The Midwest is a good location because of its short growing season and its cold winters. With the vertical farms we can grow indoors 24/7 and harvest 365 days a year.”

Expansion in China

At the same time that Green Sense Farms is expanding its vertical farms in the U.S., it is also building a network of farms in China. The company’s goal is to build 100 farms in China with its local operating partner Star Global Agriculture. It began work on its first China facility in March 2015. Located in the city of Shenzhen, the vertical farm is expected to start growing produce in June.

“Shenzhen is located right across the border from Hong Kong,” Colangelo said. “There are 48 million people within 50 miles of our farm. Our plan is to build 10 farms in the city in the next 24 months. They would serve Hong Kong and Macau, which is considered the Las Vegas of the East.

“China has 1.4 billion people. The country is transforming from a manufacturing economy into the largest consumer economy. In a very short time China is going to have incredible buying power. As a middle class emerges, Chinese consumers are demanding higher quality food.”

Colangelo said China’s transformation over the last 25 years into one of largest industrial manufacturing economies ate up a lot of farm land and produced heavy pollution.

“A lot of the food supply has been affected by the industrialization,” he said. “There is heavy air pollution, ground water has been contaminated in the large cities and there are terrible traffic jams. Putting vertical farms in the cities close to the people reduces congestion, controls the cleanliness of the food, and supplies emerging markets that want to eat healthy, fresh greens.

“There is a tremendous amount of capital available. In China there aren’t as many rules and regulations as we have had to deal with in the states so we can move much more quickly. Even though we started in the U.S. and we will continue to build our network here, with the availability of capital and less regulations to deal with in China, we feel that we can build a network of farms much more rapidly there.”

Colangelo said the company’s goal in China is to pioneer the lettuce market.

“We know there is an emerging lettuce market. We feel that we can dominate that,” he said “But we also know that we have to grow different greens for the Chinese palette. Some of the crops include Chinese onions, baby bok choy and mustard greens. Some of the herbs will also be different such as coriander.”

Colangelo said with China’s population the potential market is immense.

“Initially we will put as many farms as we can in Shenzhen,” he said. “Then we’ll blanket Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu. Those cities have large population centers (20 million plus) where we can build a circle of farms around the cities.

“The traffic congestion is so bad in China that it would be better to build smaller farms closer to consumers. Even in a small area it takes a long time to go a short distance during rush hour. It’s better to have several small farms then to have a big farm in a central location.”

The future of vertical farming

Colangelo said the indoor vertical farming market in the U.S. is a rapidly emerging market.

“There are a lot people rushing into vertical farming either because they see it as a way to stop world hunger, as a lifestyle change or they see it as a responsible and sustainable way to grow,” he said. “All those things are great. Vertical farming can help those things, but it is not a panacea.”

He said vertical farming has raised the bar for sustainable farming.

“You are seeing some field farmers becoming much more sustainable, as they use precision farming techniques to conserve water, fertilizer and pesticides,” he said. “Greenhouse growers are also becoming much more responsible on how they minimize water and fertilizer use.

“Each of those methods of farming are targeted to grow different crop types better. Field farming is fantastic for commodity crops like corn, wheat and soybeans. Greenhouses are great for tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Vertical farming is a great way to grow leafy greens. Vertical farming really takes a skilled practitioner with a good management team, a good understanding of the produce business and good understanding of controlled environment agriculture and patient capital.”

Colangelo sees more people rushing into vertical farming which will result in a high failure rate.

“I expect that eventually a few companies will emerge in the long run that will be large scale companies,” he said. “Internationally I see vertical farming growing in constrained markets where produce travels great distances. There is either a lack of water, a lack of land or heavy pollution that drive the creation of farms.”

Colangelo said the vertical farming market is rapidly expanding at the same time it is maturing quickly.

“When I started in this industry in 2009, it was a cottage industry,” he said. “Today you really need to bring your A team to start a vertical farm. You have to have a strong management team. You have to be well capitalized. You have to be strategically focused with a cogent business plan. You have to have an experienced growing team in place. You have to have a good command of the technology that’s ever changing. And you have to be willing to constantly innovate and be agnostic towards your current technology.

“Our first grow room is going on three years old and it’s already a museum. We have already retrofitted it with new technology. We have farm designs that go way beyond where we’re at now and we’re just getting started. The only constant in life is change, either be the catalyst for change, be changed or die.”

For more: Green Sense Farms, (219) 762-9990; robert@greensensefarms.com

http://greensensefarms.com.

David Kuack is a freelance technical writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.

The 20,000-square foot indoor vertical farm will be an innovative workforce training center for the next generation of farmers as it grows micro greens, baby greens, herbs, and lettuces for local customers. Many of these customers were on hand to celebrate the groundbreaking and show their support, including representatives from Martin’s Super Markets, Morris Inn at the University of Notre
Dame, Café Navarre, Sodexo, and Four Winds Casinos.

With support from the city of South Bend, Green Sense Farms will construct the state-of- the-art facility to work as a hands-on training center and working commercial farm to create much needed job-ready graduates to work in food service, produce and as modern indoor vertical farmers. Land, which was approved by Ivy Tech’s state board of trustees on Feb. 2, will be transferred to the Portage-based company with the requirement of cooperatively creating a workforce training program.

Ivy Tech gains access to the working commercial vertical farming as a result of the partnership without the large-scale investment needed to acquire equipment.

Students will receive technical training as well as the soft skills that are in high demand, making them job ready. Courses will begin as non-credit or through courses complementing other programs. The farm is expected to be completed by Q2 2018.

There will be a groundbreaking ceremony at 250 Sample Street on Wednesday, July 19 at 2 p.m. A brief presentation will be held inside Ivy Tech’s Sample street location to precede the groundbreaking.

Ivy Tech and Green Sense Farms have been developing the partnership since the summer of 2015. The 20,000-square foot operational vertical farm will be utilized for workforce training and to better understand the future opportunities for the next generation of farmers. Items such as micro greens, baby greens, lettuces and herbs will be produced to support local markets, restaurants and local colleges.

With support from the city of South Bend, Green Sense Farms will construct a state-of-the-art facility to work as a hands-on lab for students training in this emerging field. Land, which was approved by Ivy Tech’s state board of trustees on Feb. 2, will be transferred to the Portage-based company with the requirement of cooperatively creating a workforce training program.

Ivy Tech gains access to the vertical farming labs as a result of the partnership without the large-scale investment needed to acquire equipment. Students will receive training in transferable skills for areas such as food service, retail and industrial maintenance. Courses will begin as non-credit or through courses complementing other programs.

Urban Ag News Issue 13  |  April 2016

Spring has sprung and so has Urban Ag News Issue 13. Be sure to check out the latest issue which contains some great articles and videos on controlled environment agriculture and urban farming.

Urban Ag News’ Issue 13 cover story looks at Green Sense Farms’ efforts to meet the increasing demand for clean, safe produce in both the U.S. and China. Founding farmer and CEO Robert Colangelo talks about how his company is opening additional vertical farming operations in both countries along with a training facility to create job-ready graduates to grow in controlled environments.

Thinking about installing a water treatment system for your growing operation? University of Florida professor Paul Fisher said you should know your goals before investing in a treatment system. A treatment system won’t add value to your product, but it will reduce the risk of crop losses.

Duron Chavis, indoor urban farm director at Virginia State University, is helping citizens of Richmond and Petersburg, Va., have access to locally-grown produce year round. His efforts along with community leaders and university colleagues are helping people eat and live healthier through urban agriculture.

ISSUE 13 INCLUDES:

On the cover: Robert Colangelo, founding farmer and CEO at Green Sense Farms
Green Sense Farms to expand its Vertical Farming Operations in the U.S. and China

Helping people eat, live healthier through urban agriculture, with Duron Chavis

An Interview with Dr. Gary Stutte

Urban Ag Zoning: Lessons from San Antonio

NY SunWorks: Is the future of farming in public schools?

Know your goals before investing in a water treatment system

Tour de Fresh 2016 by Chris Higgins
Indoor Ag Con Las Vegas April 2016
e-Gro Webinars
Japan Plant Factories Special Report by Eri Hayashi
FDCEA 2016 Events to Attend
University of Arizona, CEAC, Patricia Rorabaugh Retires
Infographic: Living Wage Calculation for Dallas, Texas

News from the Industry features these and more:

How LED lighting treatments affect greenhouse tomato quality
AeroFarms offers new level of safety and flavor for delicious, nutritious leafy greens
Dr. Roberto Lopez joins Michigan State University Horticulture faculty
Lettuce See The Future: LED Lighting Helps Farming Go High-Tech In Japan
Interim president and CEO of AmericanHort steps down
Growtainer and Glenn Behrman
HydroGarden starts international school sponsorship to mark 20th year in business
The Diane Rehm Show: The Growth Of Large-Scale Indoor Urban Farming
GreenTech 2016 to be packed with inspiring sessions and speakers
CropKing Introductory Grower Workshop
2016 Tour de Fresh Sponsorships Available Now
New white paper available on the immense potential of Asia’s Indoor Ag Industry
Critical Foodscapes: what does the future hold for urban gardening?
New Case study on Urban Produce available from Hort Americas
Study Finds Philips LED Lights Provide Improved Energy Efficiency and Production for Growing Food Crops in Space
Sustainable Agriculture Training / Cal Poly Pomona Launch New Hybrid Course and a New School Name

Reprints worth Reading:

New Growing System Arrives in UK

Formed earlier this year, the Green Sense Farms Advisory board will assist Green Sense as it continues expanding in both domestic and international markets. The Board consists of business leaders representing agriculture, the environment, finance, LED lighting, genome sequencing, information technology, and more. Bob Parker is chairman of the advisory board, and is Vice President and Global Commercial Manager for ExxonMobil’s Environmental Services Company.

“Green Sense Farms is advancing the field of indoor vertical farming worldwide. Working together helps us all improve the global food chain,” said van Leeuwen. “Working with professionals such as Marco van Leeuwen means that we now can focus on finding seeds that grow best indoors under LED lights, eventually allowing us to double crop yields, advancing the industry and creating a better product for consumers,” said Robert Colangelo, CEO and Founding Farmer for Green Sense Farms.

Green Sense Farms’ innovative indoor, vertical growing system means their farms can grow 365 days per year in perfect growing conditions, without herbicides, pesticides, or GMO seeds. Popular Science recently named Green Sense Farms to its list of the year’s 100 Greatest Inventions for the farm’s innovative sustainable farming. Headquartered in Portage, Indiana, Green Sense Farms has announced the formation of Green Sense Farms, Asia Pacific, Ltd. and plans to build more than 12 indoor farms in the People’s Republic of China, as well as additional farms in the United States and beyond.

The seed of change, so to speak, was planted when a friend turned me on to the company he works with on the island of Oahu: Green Applied Sciences. Here is where I learned the terms controlled environment agriculture or CEA and eventually the fascinating, indoor vertical farming. I quickly grasped the concept that agriculture and ultimately humans could greatly benefit when technology and science are applied at its highest levels. The elements of and advances in lighting and robotic automation, software and data collection and a host of other disciplines like physics, biology and engineering all play an integral part in how food is grown in the 21st century. Ag Tech is cool and people are paying attention.

This notion captivated my imagination and made me wonder if I could jettison my tired software career and use the skills I acquired over the years to benefit new companies engaged in indoor vertical farming. I became engrossed and hopelessly smitten with the world-changing possibilities vertical farming offered. I knew, however, I had a steep learning curve ahead of me if I was to be conversant in the terms and methodologies when interfacing with the people who were pioneering and disrupting an industry.

I spent the next three months, literally five to seven hours daily, immersing myself in the essentials of CEA. I voraciously studied lighting, nutrients, grow mediums (aka substrates) and irrigation, HVAC methodologies and the structures used in housing the vertical farm. Along the way I discovered there were amazing people, companies and public and private organizations attempting to make a difference (and a profit), specifically in indoor vertical farming in a closed environment using only LED lighting to grow the plant. I found a kinship among many people – all singing from the same hymnal of reversing the harm that modern agriculture has wrought upon our dear planet.

My first CEA “crush” was on Dutch firm PlantLab. Shamelessly, I was seduced by the pink lights and intelligent website. Without hesitation I contacted their US representatives, Karrah Phillips and Brian Lanes, who fortunately for me are based in California. They graciously agreed to meet with me for lunch in San Francisco one warm fall day. This was a highlight for me, knowing I was about to make a commitment to an industry which, like a new relationship, holds so much promise.

Without question, my journey has been immeasurably helped by the great work of Henry Gordon-Smith’s super-blog Agritecture and the like-minded-people-gathering Association for Vertical Farming. I learned so much from Henry, who I would later meet personally at Nicola Kerslake’s Indoor Ag Con event in March of 2015 in Las Vegas. It was there I also met the esteemed Dickson Despommier, author of The Vertical Farm, along with CEA industry leaders like my new friend and mentor, Chris Higgins of Hort Americas and Urban Ag News. Chris was a co-sponsor of the Indoor Ag Con event and is a tireless advocate for all-things CEA, including the word CEA, which he defends, in fairness, to include greenhouse structures utilizing actual sunlight versus only supplemental LED lighting, along with “pink houses.”

Being audacious (and thanks to LinkedIn), I was able to virtually connect with some of the industry’s pioneering figures. People like FarmedHere’s Mark Thomann, GreenSense Farms’ Robert Colangelo and a man I’ve come to know and respect, Urban Produce’s Ed Horton. Urban Produce is headquartered in Irvine, California, my hometown, a place once known for its agrarian roots which now, thanks to Ed’s efforts, is experiencing a different kind of harvest.

It was Matt Vail, however, as Founder of Local Roots Farms in Los Angeles who shared his work on an 8 x 40 foot shipping container. In early 2015 I met Matt for lunch at a restaurant in LA owned by the rock band KISS, and later I was fortunate enough to receive my first vertical farm cum container tour. I’m certain my pupils dilated as I entered Matt’s pink-lit domain teeming with the most beautiful (and large) heads of butter lettuce I’ve ever seen.

Over the past 12 months I’ve been able to cultivate a relationship with one of Central America’s only vertical farmers, David Proenza of Urban Farms in Panama. David, a brother from another Sicilian mother, was a co-organizer of the May 2015 International Congress for Controlled Environment Agriculture(ICCEA). Scary high humidity be damned, I attended this gathering of preeminent business and academic leaders in the field of CEA and indoor vertical farming in beautiful Panama City. It was there where I met many superstars like Dr. Gary Stutte of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center who has been working on growing plants in a zero-gravity, controlled environment for over 30 years; Dr. Don Wilkerson of Caliber Biotherapeutics, a Texas firm dedicated to growing plants for the purposes of extracting vital elements used in vaccines and for other life-saving uses; and Henry Aykroyd of Intelligent Growth Solutions in the UK. Henry and team seek to incorporate the highest elements of technology; robotics, automation and science into their commercial grow operations. Perhaps my favorite is the gentle soul Dr. Toyoki Kozai from Chiba University in Japan; Dr. Kozai is known as “The Father of the Plant Factory.”

Throughout the past year I’ve had the good fortune of meeting people like Caesar Layton of Cultivate Ventures and Geoff Eisenberg of the Ecosystem Integrity Fund; both firms are seeking to invest capital in innovative vertical farming start-ups.  Admittedly, many investors are taking a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude and who can blame them? Among all VCs, however, is the insightful and pedigreed Will Kain ofRusheen Capital Partners in Los Angeles. Will is someone I’ve come to know and respect for his insight and candor surrounding what it will take for any vertical farm start-up to succeed. The only beef I have with Will is his brother, Tucker, is the CFO of the Dodgers and I’m a die-hard Giants fan.

Like a baseball season or a new relationship, there is no time like the present for the indoor vertical farming industry – an industry both highly competitive and unproven. My journey this past year into the world of controlled environment agriculture and indoor vertical farming has been fun, educational, and I’m absolutely indebted to the many people who have welcomed me into their work lives, many mentioned here. Keep your eyes on indoor vertical farming. It will change the world. It will change the way we produce and distribute food. It will change lives. This is what I have learned.  

– Jim Pantaleo

Green Sense Farms USA of Portage, Indiana and Star Global Holdings of the People’s Republic of China have formed a partnership to build, own, and operate a network of more than 20 indoor vertical farms in China. The new partnership, Green Sense Farms, Asia Pacific, ltd. will begin building its first farm this year in Shenzhen, a major city in southern China’s Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong.

Green Sense has chosen the iD TOWN Art District as the location for the first farm. iD TOWN will redevelop a vacant printing and dyeing factory into a 20-acre creative site that will include artist studios, hotels, a conference center, and dining. “Not only is it exciting to bring our sustainable, vertical farming concept to China, but we’re also really gratified to be part of such a stellar redevelopment project,” said Robert Colangelo, CEO of Green Sense Farms. Colangelo recently returned from China where he and partner Harry Chan met with officials, residents, and future customers about the upcoming projects. “By growing food indoors in a sustainable, controlled, and sanitary environment, we can increase food security and help feed the Chinese people in an environmentally friendly way,” said Chan.

Green Sense Farms currently operates the largest indoor vertical farm in the United States. The farm’s sustainable farming practices grow a large quantity of produce in a very small footprint – about one tenth the size of a traditional farm. Because the produce can be grown close to customers, food is delivered fresher and travels fewer miles than traditional farming.

Green Sense Farms’ innovative indoor, vertical growing system means their farms can grow 365 days per year in perfect growing conditions, without herbicides, pesticides, or GMO seeds. Popular Science recently named Green Sense Farms to its list of the year’s 100 Greatest Inventions for the farm’s innovative sustainable farming.

For more info:

www.greensensefarms.com