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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

precision agriculture

Watch as AppHarvest’s Automated Indoor Farm Takes Produce From Pre-Seed to Packaging

Even if you’re aware of controlled environment agriculture, a tech-forward approach to indoor farming that can include techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, vertical farming, automation, and more, chances are you haven’t seen a CEA system take a plant from seed to packaging.

Well, today’s your lucky day because we have a video from AppHarvest showing the different stages, from seeding to harvesting to putting it all in a package. The new 4-minute-plus video is a simple b-roll that came to us from AppHarvest as part of the news announcement about their new indoor salad greens farm in Berea, Kentucky.

According to the announcement, the new farm features a touchless growing system that automates the entire lifecycle from pre-seeding to packaging and also includes onsite washing for produce that goes into washed-and-ready-to-eat salad packs. AppHarvest says the new farm can grow about 35 million lettuce plants at a time, going from seed to maturity in about three to four weeks, depending on the variety. That equates to about half a billion lettuce plants produced per year.

AppHarvest built the new facility in partnership with Mastronardi Produce, a company that sells produce such as tomatoes, berries, and salad kits at retail, who provided $30 million in debt financing to AppHarvest to build out the new facility.

You can watch the entire video below or skip to certain portions on Youtube, including harvesting, washing, or packaging.

Watch a completely automated precision farm from seeding to harvesting to packaging.

According to AppHarvest, 5 acres of the new farm is currently operational, and shipping produce. They plan for the new facility to be a total of 15 acres when completed. The company plans to open a 30-acre berry farm in Somerset Kentucky in the next few weeks, a farm which they built using $50 million in USDA-secured debt.

While the new facilities may pump out a whole bunch of produce compared to traditional outdoor acreage, the total number of CEA farms is just a drop in the bucket when compared to the 900 thousand traditional-ag acres there are in the US. According to AppHarvest, the US only has about 6 thousand CEA farm acres, compared with over half a million in Europe.

Three Tech Trends Helping To Save Water in the Food Industry

Between disappearing glaciers and groundwater and intensifying droughts, water supply pressure is on the rise in many regions, creating a great need to use water more efficiently.

The Spoon took a look at emerging technologies that are driving smarter use on farmlands and in food processing facilities. Here are some key innovations that could help the food system adapt to a water-depleted world:


Precision irrigation

Crop irrigation accounts for about 70% of water use worldwide, according to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. High-tech monitoring systems can help to ensure that irrigation water is being used as efficiently as possible.

California-based startup Ceres Imaging company captures aerial images of farmers’ fields, and then runs them through crop-specific data models to analyze plant health. Ceres can get an idea of how much water is in the soil using color infrared imaging — and can also use its proprietary Water Stress Index to detect irrigation issues. CropX of Israel takes a different approach, using a network of soil sensors to analyze moisture and other conditions.

Updated irrigation systems are also helping farmers to save water. Drip irrigation involves laying “drip lines” of tubing along crop rows. The drip lines are fitted with water drippers at intervals to apply a specific amount of water to each individual plant.

Wastewater management

At the processing stage, many plants consume large quantities of water to perform cleaning operations. Businesses must then decide what to do with the resulting wastewater, most of which flows back out into the environment.

A handful of startups are developing high-tech systems that help businesses to find secondary uses for that wastewater. California-based startup Aquacycl has developed a microbial fuel cell (powered by bacteria) that both treats wastewater and generates electricity. According to a Forbes interview with company CEO Orianna Bretschger, the system removes 70% of suspended solids and high levels of carbon and sulfur from wastewater — and the cleaner, resulting water can be recycled for use in cooling processes and other industrial operations.

Indoor farming

Indoor farming systems allow growers greater control over evaporation and soil drainage. Growers can also recycle irrigation water using recirculating systems; and can precisely control the amount of water that is applied to each plant using automation systems. The budding industry also cuts water use at the produce processing stage: There’s no need for triple-washing, as indoor-farmed produce is grown in a clean and controlled environment.

So it’s no wonder that many indoor farming companies boast high rates of water savings. Gotham Greens, Freshbox Farms, and Infarm all estimate that their systems use 95% less water than conventional agriculture to grow the same amount of produce.

The U.S. Forest Service estimates that 50 years from now, about half of freshwater basins in the country will be unable to meet monthly water demand. Annual drought conditions as well as concerns about a water-scarce future are likely to continue driving tech innovation in the space. Food growers and producers alike may also find that increased transparency around water-saving practices appeal to consumers who are looking for sustainable options.

Gotham Greens Opens First California Greenhouse & Becomes B-Corp Certified

Gotham Greens operates greenhouses in New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, Illinois, and Colorado — a wide geographical range for a U.S. indoor farming company. Back in March, The Spoon reported on Gotham’s plans to open up growing operations in a new region: the West Coast.

Last week, Gotham officially opened the first phase of its new Davis, Calif. greenhouse. With the new facility, the company has cemented its title as the only nationwide controlled environment agriculture brand. Gotham also announced that it has become a Certified B Corporation™, reflecting the company’s emphasis on accountability and transparency.

Gotham Greens uses a climate-controlled, hydroponic system to grow salad greens and herbs. The company reports that its tech uses 95% less water and 97% less land to produce the same results as conventional farming.

Gotham Greens CEO Viraj Puri



The new California location will help Gotham to further expand its commercial footprint, reaching more retailers (including Whole Foods, Raley’s, and Sprouts Farmers Market) out west. “California is currently responsible for growing one-third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits, but has faced critical issues in the past years surrounding drought, food safety and worker welfare,” CEO and co-founder Viraj Puri told The Spoon via email. “Our approach is designed to cut down on food miles and bring our farms closer to you. Building greenhouses next to large urban populations and distributing our produce regionally allows us to reduce transportation time, fuel consumption and associated carbon emissions.”

Generally speaking, Gotham seeks out greenhouse locations that offer short delivery routes to retail locations. Aside from slashing emissions, the company’s regional hub model helps to cut transportation costs (one of the reasons why Gotham’s produce has achieved price parity with equivalent products).

“We’re also committed to adaptive reuse projects –– helping revitalize urban communities by transforming otherwise underutilized real estate into productive agriculture,” Puri said. The company built its Baltimore, Md. greenhouse on the site of a defunct steel mill; its Providence, R.I. greenhouse site was once home to a General Electric lighting factory.

Gotham purchased the land for its newest greenhouse from the University of California Davis. Puri said that the facility will help the company to step up its partnership with the university system. Gotham is a member of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources’ new controlled environment agriculture consortium, which is exploring crop optimization for indoor farming, automation and artificial intelligence in growing systems, and other topics.

In achieving Certified B Corporation™ status, Gotham has also committed itself to standards of social and environmental performance. The company already relies primarily on sunlight and renewables to power its greenhouses, and has plans to both cut its electricity use and reduce its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emission intensity by 5% by the end of 2024. According to Puri, the company’s investments in automation technology and LEDs will be key to achieving that goal.

In the next few years, Puri said, Gotham will also focus on expanding to more U.S. states and increasing operational capacity at existing greenhouses. The company will also seek out new partnerships with retailers to create salad dressings, dips, cooking sauces, and other products with Gotham Greens. (The company recently introduced a pesto sauce in Purple Carrot meal kits.)

So we’re sure to see Gotham expand and evolve in several different ways in the coming year. It’ll be particularly interesting to see what innovations the company’s partnership with the University of California might unlock, both in terms of building better indoor farming tech and advancing the agricultural workforce of the future.

After Going Public via SPAC, Controlled Environment Ag Specialist Local Bounti Looks to Disrupt the Produce Business

After Going Public, Indoor Farming Company Local Bounti Rings the New York Stock Exchange Bell

Most of the tech-focused indoor agriculture startups The Spoon covers have raised private funding rounds from investors as they scale up and expand. Local Bounti, a Montana-based controlled environment agriculture company, has charted a different course when it comes to raising capital.

Through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Local Bounti went public in November. Co-CEO Craig Hurlbert rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last week, celebrating Local Bounti’s emergence as a publicly traded company. It’s a milestone that reflects what makes the company stand out in the indoor farming space: a practical, somewhat old-school focus on business economics.

Hurlbert and his co-CEO Dr. Travis Joyner originally entered the indoor farming space as co-founders of a private equity firm seeking to invest in a controlled environment agriculture startup. But as Hurlbert and Joyner looked into existing companies, they saw an opportunity to create something unique.

“We came from the energy space, where unit economics is everything, and we thought we could bring that to the industry,” Hurlbert told The Spoon over Zoom last week. So they founded Local Bounti, aiming to build a unique CEA organization with a built-in focus on unit economics.

Local Bounti’s uses a patent-pending “stack and flow” growing system, which Hurlbert described as a hybrid of greenhouse and vertical farming. According to Hurlbert, the flexibility of the system should allow the company to expand its current catalog of eight profitable SKUs to over 30. The company estimates that its system uses 90% less land and water to grow its greens than it would take to produce the same output via conventional agriculture.

Since Local Bounti’s founding in 2018, the company has attracted some big-name investors, including Cargill and BNP Paribas. Hurlbert said that the team’s focus on unit economics helped to draw in those investors.

According to Hurlbert, Cargill also developed an interest in Local Bounti because the legacy agriculture corporation is taking note of increasing demand for environmentally friendly produce: “Cargill’s customers have been coming to them and saying, ‘We want to focus on a more sustainably grown, cleaner product that’s better for our end consumers.’ And that’s why they started looking at the CEA space.”

Cargill’s relationship with Local Bounti is three-pronged: The legacy agriculture corporation has invested on the equity side, contributed to Local Bounti’s $200 million debt facility, and helped the company to establish partnerships with its own customers.

Last year, though, Local Bounti’s leadership decided to depart from the normal capital-raising route. “We already know we have a differentiated technology. We know what our facility can do,” Hurlbert said. “It’s now time to balance the technology with capitalization so we can really get out there and make our mark.”

So Local Bounti completed a merger with Leo Holdings III Corp., a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, last month. Local Bounti is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “LOCL.”

“I’m so happy for the whole team that we were able to achieve this,” Hulbert said, reflecting on ringing the opening bell at the stock exchange. “And really, the finish line to the deal is the starting line to the company. So we’ve got a weekend to celebrate, and then we’ll get out there Monday morning and really go about the disruption process.”

On the retail side, Local Bounti has partnered with Idaho-based grocery chain Albertsons to get its products to consumers. The company has placed its products in about 100 Albertsons stores throughout the Intermountain West, and hopes to expand the relationship.

The company also has big plans when it comes to brand-building. “I would encourage you to go to the grocery store, look in the produce section, and ask yourself if there’s a brand there that you connect with,” Hurlbert said. He doubts that the answer will be yes — but he thinks that Local Bounti can change that with the expertise of CMO Josh White, formerly CMO at Chobani.

When it comes to the big picture for controlled environment agriculture, Hurlbert believes it’ll only take some time and consumer education to develop a loyal base of buyers: “I think when the consumer gets complete transparency about this product — how it affects the environment, how long it’ll last in their refrigerator — they’ll never go back.”

Precision AI Raises $20M Seed Round for Drone-Powered Surgical Herbicide Application

Precision AI, an automated precision agriculture startup, announced today that it has raised a $20 million in Seed round of equity and grant funding. The round was co-led by At One Ventures and the Industrial Innovation Venture Fund of BDC Capital, with participation from Fulcrum Global Capital and Golden Opportunities, as well as non-dilutive co-investment from Sustainable Development Technology Canada and Protein Industries Canada.

Based in Regina, Canada, Precision AI uses a combination of drones and computer vision to conduct precise application of herbicides and pesticides on weeds. Precision AI’s system deploys swarms of drones that fly over farm fields. The drones can carry a 25 lbs. payload and have a 55 minute flight time. Equipped with both cameras and a sprayer, the drones’ system automatically identifies weeds and sprays them with specific dose of pesticide or herbicide.

The goal is to reduce the waste and cost that comes from indiscriminate, broad application of chemicals to tackle weeds. Additionally, Precision AI’s approach only sprays the weeds, not the crops themselves, so there are fewer chemicals applied to the food we consumer. Precision AI says its drone approach to weed control on large acreage crops is much cheaper than traditional large farming machinery and could reduce the amount of pesticide use by up to 95 percent while maintaining crop yield and saving farmers $52 per acre per growing season.

Precision AI sits at the Nexus of a few trends happening in agriculture. The first, fittingly, is bringing precision control to farms. Sensors and IoT allow the monitoring of things like soil moisture, plant temperature, and fertilization on a more granular level. To get these levels of precision, we’re also seeing automation coming to farms in the form of robots that do everything from carrying gear to zapping weeds with electricity to harvesting crops. Drones are also being employed more monitor farm conditions and plant growth and even pick fruit.

Automation on the farm is actually a topic we’ll be tackling at our upcoming ArticulATE food robotics and automation virtual summit on May 18th. We’ll have speakers from Future Acres, AgShift and AgFunder discussing the opportunities that lie ahead for automated precision agriculture. Get your ticket today!

Agtech Startup Nordetect Wins €10,000 Prize for Portable Nutrient Sensor

There are plenty of reasons food producers are considering indoor agriculture these days, including the potential for better crops and yields thanks to tech integrations and the ability to keep farm workers safer (ie, not laboring in the thick of wildfire smoke). However, to make indoor farming as efficient as possible, and thereby cut down on food waste, more precision around plant nutrients, water, and other elements is needed.

Denmark-based startup Nordetect is one such company tackling this challenge. The precision-agriculture-focused company just nabbed the top spot (and €10,000) of agtech company Priva’s recent Horti Heroes challenge, which showcased companies innovating in the horticulture space.

Nordetect, which is also a part of the SOSV portfolio, won the challenge for its portable device that measures nutrients in soil, water, and plant tissue so growers can more precisely use fertilizer in crops and get better yields and less waste.

On its website, Nordetect says this nanosensor can be used on anything from leaf samples to soil to manure. The system also integrates with any existing software the farm might be using, and a built in GPS keeps track of where each sample is located in the field or farm. A major differentiator Nordetect offers is its ability to measure nutrients within minutes, as opposed to the traditional process that can take weeks.

Speaking in today’s press release, Nordetect CEO Keenan Pinto said the company’s target market was high-value crop space — that is, areas that grow crops like leafy greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers. “These are crops that have a nutrient requirement change between their vegetative and generative phases… and if you can get the fertilization correct, you can also achieve a significantly higher flower rate and yield,“ he said.

Many indoor farms, whether tech-enabled greenhouses or vertical farms, now grow those crops. At the same time, the number of these indoor farming facilities keeps rising and their locations include everywhere from isolated warehouses to grocery store parking lots to food desserts. 

Priva is something of a heavyweight in the world of indoor farming, which means its awarding of the prize to Nordetect and subsequent partnership with the company will lead to further technological innovation around precision agriculture inside the above farming locations.  

Arable Launches New Mark 2 Sensor to Monitor Climate and Plant Conditions on Farms

Agtech company Arable today announced a new version of its sensor along with a suite of tools to help farmers and food producers monitor and collect data about soil and weather conditions on their land.

At the heart of Arable’s solution is its new Mark 2, the second generation of its solar-powered, connected sensor. Once installed, the Mark 2 sits above the plant canopy and measures 40 different elements like rain, solar radiation, canopy cover, crop water demand, and environmental stresses.

The Mark 2 can be used as part of the company’s new Arable Forecasting product, also announced today. Arable Forecasting combines data from the Mark 2 with third-party weather data and machine learning to provide hyperlocal weather forecasting. This means growers can monitor micro-climates across vast grow areas, and take specific actions on a more granular level.

Arable: Decision Agriculture

Along with the new sensor and Arable Forecasting, the company also announced:

  • Arable Bridge, which integrates data from auxiliary sensors like soil moisture probes, pressure switches and wind speed monitors into the Mark 2.
  • Arable Open, an open-source API for external platform interoperability.
  • Arable Mobile, a cloud-based platform for crop consultants, farmers and food processors.

Arable is among a number of startups promising to deliver more precise, data-driven agriculture. Other players in the space include CropX, a soil sensor company that acquired irrigation management tool company CropMetrics earlier this year; Terralytic, a soil sensor that monitors nitrogen, phosphate and potassium; and Taranis, which uses aerial imagery to detect crop stresses.

Arable’s Mark 2 is already available to order on the company’s website for $1,595 plus a $699 per year subscription. According to today’s press announcement, Arable has been used in 37 countries across six continents by companies like BASF, Netafim, and Treasury Wine Estates.

FarmBot Nasa

FarmBot Wants to Cultivate an Open-Source Future for Remote Farming

“Farm from anywhere” is a phrase we’re likely to hear more and more of as technology enables easier access to fresh, locally grown food. We just wrote about Babylon Micro-Farms, a remote, hydroponic farm you can keep inside your living room. There’s also a healthy urban farming market: thanks to companies like Farmshelf and Smallhold, restaurants, schools, and the average consumer get better access to fresh food and more involved in the food production itself.

But no one’s tackled the reinvention of farming quite like the folks at FarmBot.

FarmBot is basically precision agriculture for the people. When he launched the FarmBot project in 2011, founder Rory Aronson wanted to find a way to bring the benefits of remote farming to the everyman without the hefty price tag.

Precision agriculture normally involves technology like self-steering tractors and aerial drones that can make better use of resources. Because the method uses real-time data to understand weather, air quality, labor costs, and other factors, growers can make smarter decisions about how much and how often to employ resources. As its name suggests, precision agriculture provides meticulous records of every single step of the growing process.

Historically, it’s been the territory of industrial farmers. But thanks to Aronson, anyone with a little space and (considerably less) cash can get involved in food production.

Both FarmBot products, made up of cartesean coordinate robots along with software and documentation, can work on rooftops, in backyards, and can accommodate both small- and large-scale farming operations. It’s unclear whether the company means “farm from anywhere” literally, as it says on its website. But considering the highly customizable nature of the product, anyone with some tech know-how could theoretically hack the bot and make it work in any given climate.

A visual interface lets you “plan your garden like a videogame,” according to the company’s website. So the fact that the interface looks a bit like FarmVille is no coincidence. You can drag and drop plants into the virtual plot of land (below), build care regiments, and even scare away birds.

After the garden is planned, the machine plants seeds, measures soil moisture content and water, and can detect and destroy weeds. Email alerts tell a user when the crops are ready for harvest.

It’s also open source, including the hardware, software, and documentation. That means all design files, source code, and hardware specs are available for free on the company’s website, so anyone can customize their farm without having to fork over a bunch of extra money.

Right now, the FarmBot Genesis goes for $2,595 via the company’s website. The FarmBot Genesis XL, which is available for preorder, costs $3,295 and covers “421 percent the area of for just 38% more cost.” Shipments of both machines are expected to go out in May of this year.

Aronson would eventually like to get the price point down to $1,000. It’s unclear whether that will happen soon or if it’s some ways off. Meanwhile, FarmBot is making its way into universities and non-profits, and the company is working with NASA to develop open-source food production on Mars, the Moon, and deep space. Remote farming indeed.

All images courtesy of FarmBot.