One of the questions that I get most frequently is, “Which hydroponic system is the best?”

I am fairly sure that my standard answer of, “it all depends” annoys most of the people I am speaking to.  From suppliers to growers and from researchers to hobbyists there is always a desire to know and understand which system is the best.

So why do I answer, “it all depends”?

Whether we are talking about nutrient film technique (NFT), deep water culture (DWC), drip irrigation systems, aeroponics systems, ebb and flow systems, or any other system we should agree that these are all just variations of irrigation systems.

Buffer capacity means security.  Buffer capacity means you can leave for a day without fear of losing the crop.

Next let’s talk about the systems suppliers and their sales representatives.  Suppliers of hydroponic systems will all tell you why theirs is better, but the conversation should really revolve around what factors cause their systems to fail.  Every system has a weakness.  Your crop, your budget, your facility and your geographic location will likely quickly highlight these weaknesses. 

So, how do you determine what system is best for you?

Here are the things you should know, think about and research thoroughly before you invest.

1. What crop are you going to grow?  If you are planning to grow tomatoes, it’s very unlikely that you will want to invest in a nft system or a dwc system.  The needs of your crop will help direct you into the right direction.  Likewise, a closed loop drip irrigation system is unlikely to be the answer for lettuce production.
   
2. Know your budget.  Your budget will play a major role in this decision making process.  Do not only think about the upfront costs of the system.  Make sure to include the operational and labor costs associated with running the system 7 days a week 365 days per year.
   
3. Know your environment.  Each crop type will respond to these 9 environmental variables (see diagram below) in different ways.  As a grower your ability to manage these variables will be a primary indicator of your ability to achieve your target yields.  The irrigation systems primary function is to help you control the 4 variables surrounding the root zone (see diagram below and focus on root zone temp, nutrients, water and oxygen.) Your geographic location and crop will determine which of these variables are most important. 
   
4. Truly understand the design.  In the recent Urban Ag News article, “Important Tips For Designing A Hydroponic Production Facility” I discussed the importance of buffer capacity.  Buffer capacity in your irrigation system plays some very important roles.  First, it will help you manage your nutrients.  Second, it will help your crop deal with variations in temperature. Third and most importantly, it will be a primary indicator of how much time you can spend away from your farm.
   
5. Figure out your maintenance and spare parts plan.  Irrigation systems break.  Irrigation systems get clogged.  Irrigation systems need to be serviced and fixed.  Make sure you understand everything from how to access the most vulnerable and weak parts of the system to how long it will take you to get replacement parts and what parts you should plan to carry in case of an emergency.  Think about redundancy!

Labor is KEY! Consider every aspect of labor.  From the education requirements of running the labor, to the amount of labor needed to operate and maintain the system to the importance of labor needed to check on the system on a regular basis.
Budget • Scale • Access

Which brings me back to where we started.  Which hydroponic system is the best?  It truly all depends.  All we know for sure is that if a supplier tells you, “you can grow every crop in our system”, be concerned.  It might be true, but I can almost guarantee you that you cannot grow every crop profitably in their system.  If a supplier struggles to help you clearly understand and answer the questions posed in this article, look for a new supplier.  There are plenty that will. 

Finally, focus on building a professional network with experience in the commercial hydroponics industries.  Ask lots of questions and understand the full benefits and limitations of any system you choose. 

Final hint: Aquaponics growers use one of these systems as well.

Author: Rebekka Boekhout. © VerticalFarmDaily.com

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 equipment to meet the specifications of their system and their requirements, assuming that their systems will be the ones adopted by the industry and standardized,” says Chris Higgins, CEO of Hort Americas.” 

According to Chris vertical farmers mostly don’t always take into account the required size and scale needed for custom made products. As an example, many of the new farming systems don’t fit the current substrate industry models. And that in itself is ok. Unfortunately, many of these farms aren’t large enough to afford the customizations needed to keep their produce profitable. That then creates additional work for these new farming businesses. Instead of being able to focus on growing, they’re trying to figure out the best way to manage a non-existent supply channel. “Growers keep designing new irrigation models and growing systems without thought of how they are going to source a substrate, consistently and cost-effectively.”

Chris says that there is a lot to learn from the Dutch greenhouse industry. Over the years they have built a great model that supports the commercial greenhouse industry really well. Namely, building a commercial vegetable greenhouse around a single crop, with the scale required to manage cost, labor, and the supply channel. “They are focused on reducing labor by using automation and getting as much efficiency out of the system and supply channel as possible. Dutch and other northern European farms grow several vegetable crops in greenhouses that are quite similar to each other. Here in the USA, the vertical farming industry is new. We are still finding ourselves. Defining our plan, and building learning to build out an industry that will support potential growth.” >>>

Association For Vertical Farming Presents: Harnessing the Growing Synergy Between Space Farming And Terrestrial Indoor Agriculture

October 7, 2020 | 2-3 pm EST
Registration Link:

This program is presented by the Association for Vertical Farming.  Over the decades there has been both the evolution and transformation of biologically-based life support innovations that have now been adopted — and are being improved upon — in today’s burgeoning global vertical farming industry.

In addition, the emergence of Industry 4.0 innovations from data analytics to automation to AI is certainly enabling and helping launch vertical farms into their exponential advancements.

And all these set the stage for synergistic public-private partnerships going forward for the successful implementation of biologically-based life support systems for long-duration manned missions on the Moon and on Mars — and all their powerful innovation multiplier effects extended further for application in the terrestrial vertical farming industry.

Our panel will be delving into the various aspects of such brave and exciting scenarios, both present and future.

What’s more, the Indoor Ag-Con October Webinar Schedule also includes:

Moderator:
Dr. Joel Cuello, Professor of Biosystems Engineering at The University of Arizona and Vice Chair of the Association for Vertical Farming

Panelists:
Dr. David Bubenheim, Senior Research Scientist,  NASA Ames Research Center
Ralph Fritsche  NASA Space Crop Production Project Manager
Dr. Gary Stutte, President, SyNRGE

Why Does Greenhouse Equipment Need To Be Simple

October 21, 2020 | 2-3 pm EST
Registration Link

What is the number one thing to look for in commercial horticulture and agriculture equipment? Simplicity.

So wrote our program moderator Chris Higgins in a piece he did earlier this year for UrbanAgNews that is both the title of this session and the topic we’ll be diving into during this hour.

Regardless of the product or the product category the best-selling and most successfully used products are easy to learn, easy to use and easy to fix. This is not to say that they are actually simple. They are usually far from that. But, they are engineered with simplicity in mind.

Why is that so important in commercial horticulture? Chris and our panelists will seek to answer this question during the session. They’ll explore why its so important for key equipment components to be simple and discuss what characteristics to look for in:

• Lighting
• Irrigation
• Sensors
• And More!

Moderator:
Chris Higgins, President & General Manager, Hort Americas LLC & Owner, UrbanAgNews

Panelists:
Paul Brentlinger, President, Crop King Inc.
Dr. Nadia Sabeh, President & Founder, Dr. Greenhouse
Isaac Van Geest, Sales, Zwart Systems

Center of Excellence For Indoor Agriculture Presents: Building Sustainable Triple Bottom Line Farms

Thursday, October 29, 2020 | 2-3 pm EST
Registration Link

During this insightful program, our panel will cover:

The concept of the Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet and Profits

• B-Certification process and reporting
• Contributions indoor farms can make according to the Triple Bottom Line
• Lessons learned from sustainable indoor farms that apply to all forms of indoor farming
• And more!

The Indoor Ag-Con October Webinar Schedule will also feature a program hosted by the Center of Excellence for Indoor Agriculture.

Moderator:
Eric W. Stein, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Center of Excellence for Indoor Agriculture and Associate Professor of Business at Penn State

Panelists:
• Dave Nichols, Director of Strategy, AppHarvest
• Alexander Rudnicki, Senior Project Manager/Plant Manager, Aerofarms

Indoor Ag-Con LLC created the new Indoor Ag-Conversations series to share content originally planned for its May 2020 in-person annual conference that was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.   To learn more about this session, as well as other upcoming programs on the schedule, visit www.indoor.ag/webinar

ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con has emerged as the premier trade event for vertical farming | indoor agriculture, the practice of growing crops in indoor systems, using hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic techniques. Its events are crop-agnostic and touch all sectors of the business, covering produce, legal cannabis |hemp, alternate protein and non-food crops. In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki and Brian Sullivan – acquired Indoor Ag-Con LLC , so setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally. More information:https://indoor.ag

Over the past few months I have watched many small farmers who were solely focused on servicing the food service and restaurant industry change simply to stay alive.  I have been amazed and impressed by their conviction and ability to create new opportunities to survive.  Their actions have inspired me to share these thoughts with all of you.

Just so we are clear, no one actually knows how to navigate this ever-changing and new business world we are living in.  Anyone that tells you any differently is at worst flat out lying to you and at best providing you their well-intentioned insights based on struggles they have dealt with in the past.

Do not be afraid to fail.

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.”
–Michael Jordan

Being able to draw on the experience of previous struggles can help us pave new paths forward. Learning from our past struggles can provide inspiration.  And most importantly, sharing our experiences will help others realize they are not struggling through this period alone. 

There is only one thing that will give small businesses a fighting chance to survive and hopefully thrive in this new economy.  LEADERSHIP

And while the key to surviving this pandemic is leadership (plus a little luck), leaders (business or otherwise) are not immune to the fear of failure and criticism.  But, their ability to be decisive is crucial in allowing organizations to move forward with confidence. Getting it wrong is part of the process but shouldn’t stop a leader from moving forward.

Do not be afraid of being different.

“If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking.”
–General George Patton

Let’s start by understanding what makes a good leader.

1. Know your cause.  Leaders believe in something greater than themselves.  For great leaders it’s not about the money or the awards (even though at times they collect these things along the way).  It’s about fulfilling the goal or achieving the dream.

2. Know yourself.  Leaders understand their principles and know what they stand for.

3. Be the one.  Be the one willing to do whatever it takes.  Make sure the team knows that you would never ask them to do something that you would not do or already have done yourself.  Put the hours in.  Be prepared to be the first one there and the last one to leave.  

4. Show and have self-confidence. Believe in yourself which will allow others to believe in you as well. This does not mean that you have to have a huge ego.  In fact, the best leaders are often humble. They do not need to take credit for the wins, but always take the blame for the losses. Leaders that truly possess a strong self-worth will be able to withstand the criticism while not needing the admiration of others.

5. Elevate your ambitions. Continue to re-evaluate and set new goals.  Work with your team to do the same.  

6. Be prepared to make the hard choices. Your team will expect this from you. They need to know that they can rely on you when difficult choices need to be made. 

7. Be prepared to change, but don’t lose focus on your values.  Changing does not mean starting over. Changing means adapting.  If your cause is worthwhile, changing times will not make your cause vanish.  Changing times may help establish a new path to achieve your goals in.

8. Become the best communicator.  In order to be a great leader, you must be a great communicator.  While you may not be born with this skill, you can learn it.  If you believe in yourself, your cause and your message plus you take time to be knowledgeable and prepared, good communication becomes easier.

9. Demand the best. In order to find success, leaders need support. Your organization will struggle with motivation, energy and conviction. Focus on inspiring and motivating your team to be the best version of themselves as often as possible so that they can provide you with the support you need to succeed.  

10. Do not surround yourself with yes men.  Your team will now become more important than ever. In order to be your best, you need people willing to challenge you. Your ability to win them over by convincing them of your plans, your message and your goals will prove that you are a strong leader and that you have what it takes to lead your organization through these new and ever changing times.  

Finally, lets remember that change is not easy and it is often messy.  As small business owners, we know we are going to be forced to change, adapt, learn and then change, adapt and learn again. 

Personally, I want to wish all my small business owner friends the best of luck as they work the incredibly long and hard hours needed to keep their dreams and ambitions alive while at the same time working to support each of the families that count on them for employment and security.

In this first issue, they featured an article by UAN founder, Chris Higgins.

“The distribution of food is now being put under a microscope. But where there is chaos, there is opportunity. So what do we do to rebuild, restrengthen, and reinforce our food distribution models so that we can provide healthy food to the majority of the population?”

–Chris Higgins

Not all has been lost on me, however.  I am amazed at our ability to carry computers in our pockets and wear them on our wrist.  I have seen the rise (and fall and rise again) of “money” that I could not and cannot hold or easily spend (ie bitcoin).  And computer driven technology has completely changed the way I communicate, bank, shop, drive and run my small business.  

What do I think I will see next?  What do I expect to see next?

I am hoping to be amazed by the commercial agriculture and horticulture industries.  Always conservative and somewhat slow to move (for good reasons), I believe these industries will do their best to try and make some of those 1970-1980’s dreams and predictions come true for me.  From farms in buildings (no sunlight) and in bubbles (semi-closed greenhouses) to self driving tractors, harvesting robots and CRISPR; our food is destined to be “innovated.”  

2020 may provide a perfect setting as it may bring us closer to seeing a few concepts become a reality.  Here’s what will I be watching:

Commercially viable farms operated by “robots”

• Fifth Season – Large Scale Pittsburg Vertical Farm that uses AI and robots to grow salad greens opens in 2020.
• Root AI – To put harvesting robots in multiple commercial greenhouse farms in 2020. 
• Iron Ox – Creating a centralized computer system capable of managing the entire farming operation will hopefully take the next steps to commercialization in 2020.

Large scale implementation of LED lit (sometimes), hi-tech commercial greenhouses producing food in the eastern half of the USA!  (The bubbles are finally coming closer to the cities and the people. And they will do this in a major way over the next five years.)

• AppHarvest – To Open their first 60 acres of vine crop production in Kentucky in 2020.
• Gotham Greens – To continue expansion in major cities across the United States.
• Little Leaf Farms – To double in size in 2020 as it expands to multiple states near the east coast. 

Smaller local farms will focus on sustainability and the community while redefining the local food scene.

• Greener Roots and Southall Farm Village, Tennessee – started as environmentally conscious vertical farms and has now expanded to the community minded commercial greenhouse.
• Profound MicroFarms and Profound Foods, Texas – one time orchid greenhouse is now producing hydroponic herbs and vegetables destined for local markets.  Chapter two will include an innovative distribution model designed to bring local farmers closer to local consumers. 
• Windy City Harvest, Illinois – led by the Chicago Botanical Gardens, Windy City will focus on education, production and distribution of fresh produce in underserved communities.

What I am excited to learn more about in 2020?  While I don’t think I will get to see true commercial implementation at large scale, I see farmers recognizing the need for solutions to food safety, labor and data at the farm ops level.  The use of AI will shift where we grow our food and how we protect our food.

• AI and Data – AgShift uses AI to check food quality quickly and accurately.
• Labor – too many concepts to mention.
• Computers vs People- Autonomous Greenhouses International Challenge – better analysis of data continues to prove that higher yields can be achieved.

Now if we look even further into history and out into the future, maybe just maybe we are starting to see other predictions start to take shape, even if for different reasons than what was originally thought. 

‘In 1913, Gustav Bischoff, former president of the American Meat Packers Association, predicted that humans’ diets would consist of mostly vegetables as the years went on. Because of a shortage of meat, he told The New York Times, even the wealthiest people in the future would be vegetarians.”  Now we all know we are nowhere near a shortage of meat, but will the next round of innovations making big advances towards cell-cultured meats a sustainable trend of the future?  Endurance athletes, American football players and body builders are all showing interest in plant-based diets, so I guess anything is possible.

Hippocrates once said, “let food be thy medicine.”  Will rising health care cost (USA) drive us to rethink what we put into our bodies?   Can we actually prevent disease with food? My guess? We will see many companies try to create concepts that capitalize on this thought process.  The reality just might be that we need to use more common sense and that functional plants/foods possess additional phytochemicals with properties way beyond their innate nutritional value. 

Desmond Tutu stated that “people of conscience need to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change.”  Since farmers (even greenhouse growers) have tied their livelihood directly to the “sun” and water, will they be the first to force major change and significant shifts in the way we grow the majority of our food, the value of that food and the location of the farms?  Low margins and perishable goods combined with inconsistency in production make for bad business. This alone is reason for change, but will it be enough of a reason?

I obviously do not have any of the answers to these questions, but I am excited about being part of this innovative process and the creation of a new agri-system based on need, opportunity and growth.  

But back to where I started, would someone get me a real hoverboard?

— Chris Higgins

The amount of investments made in the vertical farming and controlled environment agriculture industries has been well documented. Those companies that successfully raise capital are seen as industry heroes and it’s quickly assumed that they must have all the answers. But, the big question is…do they?

In order to answer that question, it is important to be specific about the questions we are asking, the assumptions we are making and to understand that the answers will come from a wide variety of different perspectives.  

List of questions

Examples of questions I am receiving and ones that we might want to ask include:

• Can a farm using controlled environment agriculture techniques be profitable?
• What crops have proven to be profitable in a greenhouse?
• What crops have proven to be profitable in a warehouse?
• What crops have proven to be profitable in a shipping container?
• What segment of the produce industry are these farms capable of serving?
• What defines a vertical farm?
• What is the difference between a greenhouse and an indoor ag facility?
• What makes controlled environment agriculture techniques and innovations unique?
• Does geographic location play a role in designing a controlled environment agriculture facility?
• Why invest in controlled environment agriculture?
• What problems are we solving?
• Is controlled environment agriculture environmentally sustainable?

The answers to all these questions are extremely important. The answers provide important insight on whether there are existing examples of multiple successful projects in a given region for a given set of crops to be produced in a controlled environment agriculture facility.

An example of how this plays out can be seen when looking at the greenhouse-grown vegetable industry. There are a number of Dutch greenhouse experts for those climates and crops that companies have proven successful over the past decades. But this does not mean that their expertise necessarily transfers to every situation. Any time ag technology and “experience” are taken to a new climate and introduced to a new market and crop there will be problems, mistakes and failures. This has been proven time and time again.

Successful business models

It is also important to realize that it is highly likely that there are many different business models that can be successful as we look at innovation to solve growing problems within horticulture and agriculture. This can easily be seen in existing greenhouse industries.

For those of us close to the industry, we can acknowledge the fact that there are low-, medium- and high-tech greenhouse facilities that are capable of producing good quality crops consistently and profitably. The reason for this is that depending on where the greenhouse is built and the crops that are grown, the greenhouse and the technology within it are designed to serve different purposes based on labor and access to natural resources. It is likely that as the indoor ag industry matures, we will find similar models.

Hurdles to overcome

So, what are the hurdles the indoor ag industry needs to overcome in order to be successful? And how are we as an industry going to achieve this success?

Based on my conversations with many industry leaders, these are the top 11 topics we need to address:

Finally, how are we as an industry going to provide solutions to these challenges or other larger problems?

First, we need to agree on which challenges we should address first and which ones we have the best chance of overcoming. Second, we need to be self critical. We need to determine if these challenges are caused by problems we created and determine if they really need to be solved?

We then need to learn from other industries that have come before us. This means we need some level of open collaboration. We will need some form of standardization. We will need to focus on education. And finally, we will need some luck.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

If you are interested in taking this conversation to the next level, I encourage you to join me on social media, at one of the many upcoming events I will be participating in or through collaboration.

Written by Chris Higgins – Urban Ag News and Hort Americas.

Press Release, 08/05/2019 (Miami, Fl.) – SDL, an independently organized event series, announced the second round of speakers to conduct presentations during the inaugural event this October 22-24, 2019, featuring CEOs, directors and other pioneering figures in sustainability strategy and agtech. 

The forum will take place inside the James L Knight Center in Miami, Florida. Featured topics include: long term sustainability across our supply chain sectors; soil health and its climate impact; the role of ground level farmers in a fast moving, innovative agricultural future. 

SDL introduces new drop-in roundtables for the October Miami forum. The goal for these first come, first serve conversations is to encourage attendees to drop into a free-thinking conversation, delving into new ideas and cooperative solutions. Tables will be scheduled pre-event and each based around a headline topic, curated and led by leaders in the AgTech community. Topics and table hosts will be announced in the coming weeks. 

Alongside SDL’s already confirmed speakers including MARS, Airbnb and Microsoft, a second round of international thought-leaders have been confirmed: 

Ken Russell – Miami Commissioner
Arama Kukutai – Partner, Finistere Ventures
Megan DeYoung – Strategic Partnerships Consultant, Aerofarms
Miku Jha – CEO, AgShift
Sara Eckhouse – Executive Director, FoodShot Global
Amy Yoder – CEO, Anuvia Plant Nutrients
Chris Higgins – Co-owner, Hort Americas
Anna Rath – CEO, Vestaron Corporation 

For a full list of speakers visit: https://www.sdleaders.com/speakers 

Occupancy for the event is limited and organizers urge attendees to secure their registration early. 

For more information on SDL or to purchase tickets visit: https://www.sdleaders.com/ 

About Sustainability & Digitalization Leaders SDL is a program of events that address our planet’s most pressing issues, bringing together the decision makers who directly impact global change and can implement the necessary strategies to move the conversation forward. 

A core advisory board will oversee and advise on partnerships. For enquiries please email lyndsey@sdleaders.com. 

About Keynote Hosting international events since 2012 across Europe, North America and the Middle East, Keynote has curated forums for emerging technology industries, launching high profile fintech projects and acting as a platform to raise significant funds, connecting and enabling companies to reach their potential. For more information about Keynote’s upcoming conferences visit www.keynote.ae 

For media partnership enquiries: amandah@sdleaders.com For partner and sponsorship enquiries: amy@sdleaders.com 

As we continue to find better ways to make the most out of our resources, one way we can do more with less is by moving our farms indoors. With an update on the latest in urban ag news, we’re joined by Chris Higgins of Hort Americas who recently attended the Green Tech convention in Amsterdam. 

Check out more from Green Sense Radio featuring Urban Ag News founder, Chris Higgins.

Hydroponic vegetable production, vertical farming, urban agriculture continues to be an area of focus as we work to figure out how to feed the world while using less energy and resources. Hort Americas works brings technically advanced, cost effective products to the greenhouse growers across North America and also has its finger on the pulse of the indoor growing news. General Manager Chris Higgins joins us.

Check out more from Green Sense Radio featuring Urban Ag News founder, Chris Higgins.

Join us on Tuesday, March 12, and explore additional tools for expanding farm revenue through vertical farming innovations.

Virginia Tech and Virginia Cooperative Extension invite you to register at http://bit.ly/Register-2019-Vertical-Farming  for the 2019 Virginia Innovation in Greenhouse and Vertical Farming Conference

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Virginia Farm Bureau
12580 West Creek Parkway; Richmond, Virginia

Keynote Speaker
Neil Mattson, Ph.D., Cornell University

Special Guest Speaker
Chris Higgins, Hort Americas

In addition, you will hear from:

• Jerry Conner, Four Oaks Farms
• Travis Higginbothan, Fluence Bioengineering
• John McMahon, Schulyer Greens
• Ryan Pierce, Fresh Impact Farms

Join academic and industry experts in exploring the latest advances in vertical farming, greenhouse technology, sensor technology, lighting, and automation.  Hear from technical experts and Virginia producers who have been successful in incorporating controlled environment agriculture into their business models.

Register by visiting http://bit.ly/Register-2019-Vertical-Farming before Thursday, February 28.

When Nicola Kerslake, founder of Newbean Capital, started Indoor Ag-Con in 2013, she was interested in becoming a provider of capital to the indoor agriculture industry.

“Part of the rationale for starting Indoor Ag-Con was to learn the industry, to figure out who makes up the industry, who has interesting and promising technologies and what projects we could fund,” Kerslake said. “We define indoor agriculture as using hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic growing techniques in warehouses, greenhouses and containers. We try to be as inclusive as possible. We consider projects as simple as using hoop houses to the most sophisticated plant factories.

“Crops that we cover include leafy greens, mushrooms, alternative protein like insects, cannabis and biodiesel. We are also featuring non-food uses at our upcoming events. This would include pharmaceuticals and biodiesel feed crops.”

Indoor Ag-Con includes two-day annual events hosted in Las Vegas in the spring, and Singapore in the winter.

“At this year’s Singapore event in January we had people from 20 countries,” Kerslake said. “Las Vegas would be similar in terms of attendees participating from a number of other countries, including folks from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, a large number of Europeans, particularly Holland, the UK, Belgium and Germany.

“There is interest from many countries and every growing type because everyone is trying to find a better way of doing things. There is technology that is being deployed in indoor farms in Asia and the United States that is coming from Europe. There are some very interesting and novel approaches coming from European producers. One that comes to mind is Urban Crop Solutions, a Belgian company that does plant factories and container farm technology. The company will customize around what a customer wants to do.”

Growing interest in Asia

Kerslake said there were several reasons that Singapore was chosen as one of the locations to hold Indoor Ag-Con.

“Asia has as much potential as the U.S. in this industry,” she said. “In particular, we are seeing fast growth in plant factories in places like China. We see some very interesting tech development happening in Japan and South Korea. As a consequence, Asia was a natural place to put our second location after Las Vegas. Singapore is easily accessible from places like Australia, Hong Kong and Shanghai. It also has the kind of quality venues and professional staffs that we like to work with.”

Another reason for choosing Singapore is government officials have been extremely supportive of Indoor Ag-Con. Enterprise Singapore, which was formed in April 2018, is affiliated with the country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

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“At this year’s January event in Singapore, the senior minister of state, Koh Poh Koon, whose remit covers both agriculture and entrepreneurship came and spoke,” Kerslake said. “More importantly he spent several hours speaking with exhibitors and talking to entrepreneurs. The Singapore government is genuinely interested in seeing the development of the industry there.”

Wide range of participants

Kerslake said the participants who attend Indoor Ag-Con events come from a wide background of interests.

“About a third of the audience is growers,” she said. This could be a guy who is servicing local farmers markets all the way to some of the largest growers in the world. Another third is what we call “tech geeks.” These would include companies that are supplying equipment to the industry and have been for several generations. But it also includes someone who may have invented something in his garage who is trying to find partners or is looking to find a pilot project. One of the things that we really like about our events is that we see people come with an idea and then come back the following year having found partners and distribution for it.

“The third group of participants is what we call “others,” which includes academics, policy makers, investors and some non-profits, such as food banks that are trying to figure out how to incorporate growing. The largest piece of that “other” category is produce buyers and produce companies looking to figure out how they can be a part of the indoor ag industry.”

While Indoor Ag-Con attendance is largest at its major events in Las Vegas and Singapore, it has also held smaller events in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York.

“Each of our venues has capacity restrictions,” Kerslake said. “At the Las Vegas events we will have an attendance of around 600. Our East Coast events, which are usually capped at around 130 people, sell out quickly. This November we are collaborating to do a Pop Up Indoor Ag-Con during Edible’s FoodLovesTech in Brooklyn, N.Y., which is expected to draw around 2,000 people. This is the first time that we have done a conference during another group’s event. This conference will be more about New York food and the New York food eco system. We will have speakers from AeroFarms, Bowery Farming and Square Roots. This is a great opportunity for us to be able to introduce our conference to a different audience.

“We really try to adapt to the area that were in and try to include as much local content as we can. We are looking for a balance between what’s happening locally and where the newest and most interesting ideas and technology are coming from.”

Diverse mix of speakers

When choosing speakers for the conferences Kerslake said she is not only looking for people who are knowledgeable about the industry, but have not spoken at events before.

“We start with a long list of potential speakers,” she said. “We are trying to find the newest, most interesting topics and we want someone who is attending to get a good grounding in the industry as well. We are also trying to have speakers who are not necessarily the ones that people expect.

“We had Mark Freeman, who heads campus catering at Microsoft, come to speak at one of our Las Vegas events. He had a completely different world view based on the number of people he is feeding every day. That is a really interesting perspective.”

For the upcoming Indoor Ag-Con event in Singapore, Kerslake said the conference will cover three different areas.

“One is technology which includes robotics, automation, LEDs and growing systems,” she said. “This will include everything that’s needed to run a production farm. The second area is plant biology. That tends to be the newer trends that are coming including metagenomics and phenotyping. We also have some practical experience. We introduced some mini-workshops in Las Vegas in the spring. In Singapore we will be doing more workshops with a grower who is an expert producing in tropical climates.”

The third area of focus will be entrepreneurship.

“We focus on this topic much more heavily in Asia than we do in the U.S.,” Kerslake said. “There are a large number of new entrepreneurs coming into the industry. We look at everything from funding to crop selection to insurance, which we also covered in Las Vegas. We are also going to present information on farm failures and what causes them.”
One of the speakers at the upcoming Singapore conference will be Eri Hayashi, who is director of international relations and consulting at the Japanese Plant Factory Association.

“Hayashi will be talking about the use of AI and phenotyping in plant factories,” Kerslake said. “This is a great example of highlighting some of the academic research being done as well as being able to talk about how the Japanese indoor ag industry is using some of these more advanced techniques. The Japanese industry is one of the most advanced in the world.”

Indoor Ag-Con will also be introducing an unconferencing section at its upcoming events.
“We had requests from folks to have more unstructured discussions where people would come together and discuss particular topics,” Kerslake said. “There will be people who are knowledgeable in the industry who will lead discussions about a list of topics. The topics will be chosen before the conference. There will also be public papers available on each topic that attendees can read prior to participating in the discussions along with some suggested questions to think about.”

Singapore pitch competition

Indoor Ag-Con has collaborated with Enterprise Singapore, which has put up S$150,000 to sponsor prizes for Indoor Ag-Ignite, a pitch competition open to entrepreneurs worldwide. Started in 2018, the competition has been expanded for the 2019 conference.

”We are looking for technologies that come from across the world,” Kerslake said. “The pitch application is now online so anybody can apply from anywhere. Applications are due Dec. 10. This is not only a way for someone to receive major funding for their idea, but it is also a great way for them to gain some exposure in the industry.

“We expanded the 2019 competition to include travel stipends. The five finalists will receive a travel stipend to come to Singapore where they will pitch their ideas on the main stage at Indoor Ag-Con. Each of the three winning entrepreneurs will receive S$50,000.

“It is very easy to create a pitch competition where entrepreneurs are charged to come in and pitch. That is the way many competitions are currently done. It is very different what we are doing. It’s a significant amount of work and it’s a very different bench mark when you have a government entity putting up its own capital to do this.”

For more: Indoor Ag-Con, (877) 609-6202; hello@indoor.ag; https://indoor.ag.

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

Using Controlled Environment Agriculture

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Location: The Institute for Advanced Learning and research
150 Slayton Avenue; Danville, Virginia 24540
www.ialr.org

From farms to greenhouses to warehouses, controlled environment agriculture is growing in the field of agriculture. Join academic and industry experts for this one-day event focused on the latest advances in protected culture, sensor technology, lighting, computer vision, automation, and vertical farming. Hear from technical experts as well as Virginia producers who have been successful in incorporating controlled environment agriculture into their business models.

Keynote Speaker
Neil Mattson, Ph.D., Cornell University

Special Guest Speaker
Chris Higgins, Hort Americas

Register Now at https://www.hort.vt.edu/sfcea/

Preregistration $125 (before Sept. 4th)
Late registration $140

Exhibit space available! For information on exhibiting or sponsorship, contact Martha Walker walker53@vt.edu

Virginia Cooperative Extension programs and employment are open to all, regardless of age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, politicalaffiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. An equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

If you are a person with a disability and desire any assistive devices, services or other accommodations to participate in this activity, please contact Joyce Latimer, Horticulture, at 540-231-7906/TDD# 800-828-1120 during business hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to discuss accommodations 5 days prior to the event.

Urban Ag News was started as a tool to provide people interested in controlled environment agriculture with an unbiased information resource.

Chris Higgins, founder of Urban Ag News, said the idea for this information resource began with conversations he had with vendors of horticultural and agricultural products.

“The idea started prior to the big movement in controlled environment agriculture specifically focusing on the production of leafy greens and culinary herbs in vertical farms,” Higgins said. “There have been a few specialized companies that have been selling products related to hydroponic production for many years. But it has only been within the last five years that controlled environment agriculture has become a hot topic. Producing vegetables hydroponically has recently become a topic of interest to both growers and non-growers.”

Many of the inquiries that the vendors were and still are receiving come from people outside the industry.

“The vendors weren’t necessarily in a position to respond to the questions coming from the people interested in learning more about hydroponics,” Higgins said. “Historically most of the questions were being fielded by a handful of people and much of the information that was provided was coming from Dutch sources. After talking with vendors and educators about the type of inquiries they were fielding, it came down to being able to provide the people interested in hydroponics with unbiased information. And that’s how Urban Ag News got its start.”

Growing sustainably

A major goal of Urban Ag News is to deliver information on sustainable agricultural practices whether those are done in greenhouses, vertical farms or high tunnels.

“Controlled environment agriculture is a tool for a way to produce food and non-food crops,” Higgins said. “As a tool it gives people an opportunity in certain markets to grow food year-round, including crops that historically could not be grown year-round. Controlled environment agriculture is a tool that allows growers to do pesticide-free production and offers them the potential to do organic production that is more consistent and uniform. Controlled environment agriculture can also address environmental issues, related to water, light, nutrition and energy.

“Realistically controlled environment agriculture today is about the production of leafy greens, culinary herbs and high end produce. In order for the industry to move forward growers have to be able to do the things they are doing better. This is where Urban Ag News comes in. Offering growers an educational and informational tool to do what they do better.”

The potential of vertical farming

Vertical farming has gained a lot of media attention as new companies seem to pop up on a weekly basis. While some people have questioned the ability of these companies to become and remain profitable, Higgins has seen firsthand the production and profitability potential these operations can achieve.

“A vertical farm should be looked at as nothing more than a farm that has the ability to maximize production per cubic foot,” he said. “What vertical farming looks like when it is profitable is not like those sexy architectural drawings that can be found on the Internet. There are people who are profitable vertical farmers. For example, a micropropagation facility is a vertical farm. Plants are being grown on racks under supplemental lights, in highly controlled environments with plant densities maximized per square inch.

“Propagation facilities like Grafted Growers in Tucson, Ariz., is a good example. This company is using a controlled environment in a vertical set up to provide more control and to deliver a higher success rate. This type of young plant production, similar to micropropagation facilities, can help drive vertical farming forward. At the same time it will have an impact on companies using more conventional production practices. These types of companies will also certainly have an impact on a global scale in a mass way.”

“Urban Ag News seeks to unlock plant production methods, techniques and research that has been held by very few individuals. Provide people with this information and then let them take it and be creative with it.” 

– Chris Higgins, Founder of Urban Ag News

Big picture

Even though Urban Ag News may feature companies that could have a global impact, it is not trying to focus on global issue topics.

“What Urban Ag News wants to be as it moves forward is to provide those individuals involved with food production the building blocks to create changes,” Higgins said. “Urban Ag News is not trying to tell people what to do. It is trying to give people ways to think about food production. Ways to understand it. Ways to take the basic science and apply some of the ideas that they have.

“Urban Ag News seeks to unlock plant production methods, techniques and research that has been held by very few individuals. Provide people with this information and then let them take it and be creative with it. Urban Ag News can empower them with the knowledge to innovate. Knowing that it’s not going to be a quick change, but knowing the innovation is going to be a part of the long term evolution of the controlled environment agriculture industry.”

Urban Ag News keeps evolving

Just like the controlled environment agriculture industry, Higgins said he sees Urban Ag News evolving to meet the changing needs of the industry.

“As an educational tool to help the controlled environment agriculture industry, I see Urban Ag News developing in various forms and platforms,” he said. “I expect these will be developed with guidance of university, industry and extension professionals.

“Urban agriculture has always been inspired by organizations like the Khan Academy and TED. Urban agriculture is finding unique ways to deliver educational information to a wide variety of people regardless of their language, economic position and educational level. We have a very broad audience and we cannot expect one method of communication to effectively deliver content to every individual and to every grower.

“People like to define everything and put labels on things. In my opinion, it’s still too early to define the controlled environment agriculture industry and tell what it’s going to look like and what it’s going to do. People want sustainable agriculture. They want or are trying to do things because they feel they are better for it, be that a food system, the environment, or a business.
What we are really talking about is sustainable agriculture.”

For more: Urban Ag News, (469) 532-2261; urbanagproducts@gmail.com; https://urbanagnews.com.

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