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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

vertical farm

Eden Green Technology Nabs $12M for Its Vertical Farm-Greenhouse Combo

Vertical farming company Eden Green Technology announced this week it has raised $12 million from existing investment partners and broken ground on a new greenhouse in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The new farm is located news next to Eden’s R&D center, and will produce about 500 tons of leafy greens annually, the company said in a press release.

Eden’s approach to controlled-environment agriculture is unusual in that it combines elements of both vertical farming and greenhouse growing. While plants are powered by a vertical hydroponic vine system (see image above), the farm relies largely on the sun for light, rather replicating sunlight with LEDs, as most large-scale vertical farming companies do. Accompanying software, what the company calls its “micro-climate technology,” controls humidity and temperature levels for each plant. 

Besides building a farm in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, Eden also licenses its farms out as “turnkey” options for food producers, retailers and even whole cities. The 1.5-acre farms can grow a variety of leafy greens and herbs, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers, among other produce types. Eden says each farm can yield between 11 and 13 harvests each year, depending on produce type. The company manages the construction of each farm as well as staff training and technology customization. 

The vertical farming industry is right now split between commercial-scale farms like Plenty and AeroFarms, and those companies like InFarm or Babylon Microfarms, which are more focused on selling or licensing their hardware and software to other companies.

Eden Green Technology sits somewhere between those two areas, since it produces its own greens but also sells its technology to other organizations. The company’s use of sunlight rather than LEDs is another factor that sets it apart in the vertical farming industry. 

The company said in this week’s press release that it plans to expand its partnerships beyond Texas, to new locations both domestically and internationally. So far, more than 20 of these partnerships are predicted to be in place by 2024.  

Kroger Partners with Infarm to Grow Greens in Grocery Stores

Kroger announced today that it has partnered with Berlin-based Infarm to install modular, indoor vertical farms in some of its grocery stores.

According to the press release, the deal will place Infarm units at 15 of Kroger’s QFC stores, starting with two locations this month in Bellevue and Kirkland, Washington.

Infarm creates high-tech pods that can be installed in locations like grocery stores or restaurants. These pods use a combination of hydroponics and cloud-connected software to monitor growing elements like light, air, nutrients, etc. Right now, Infarm units can grow leafy greens like lettuce and a variety of herbs.

The promise of indoor vertical farms like Infarm’s is reducing the environmental footprint of produce by eliminating the need for transportation. This proximity also translates to fresher food for the consumer as it’s picked on-site.

That all sounds great, but as my colleague Jenn Marston wrote recently, the promise of vertical farming has yet to pay off:

As an industry, vertical farming has yet to prove itself as an environmentally and economically efficient piece of the agriculture system, and along with the hype are more and more stories about complications or outright closures of vertical farms. Already, a company called FarmedHere shut down in 2017, Plantagon went bankrupt in March of 2019, and just recently, MIT halted work on its controversial Open Agriculture Initiative project after reportedly exaggerating results of its vertical farming experiments.

Those disappointments, however, were around larger scale vertical farms. Perhaps Infarm, with its smaller, in-store approach can succeed where others have failed.

Infarm continues to, well plow ahead. The company raised a $100 million Series B round earlier this year, and announced a partnership to bring its vertical farm pods to Marks and Spencer stores in the U.K.

Bellevue and Kirkland aren’t that far from The Spoon HQ, so you can expect one of us to make the trip and pick some in-store produce soon.

Food Tech News: Grocery Goes Electric, Green, and Voice-Enabled

Happy long weekend, to those of you lucky enough to have one! This is a cause for celebration — and for food tech news. This week was heavy on grocery, from Tesla shipping trucks to international in-store vertical farms. Enjoy!

 

 

Kroger expands Ship, enables voice ordering for grocery pickup
It was quite a week for grocery giant Kroger! First, the company expanded Ship, its home delivery service, to the Mid-Atlantic region, covering Virginia, West Virginia, and the Raleigh-Durham area (h/t BizJournal). With this latest expansion, Ship is now offered in each Kroger store division. According to BizJournal, the company will next roll it out to their other divisions, like Harris Teeter and Ralphs.

A few days later, the grocery chain let drop on their Linkedin page that they would be launching voice-enabled ordering through an action on the Google Assistant voice app (h/t FoodDive). Customers can access the app through iOS, Android, or Google Assistant, and use it to view their Kroger Grocery Pickup. So far, the service is available in six banner stores including QFC and Fred Meyer.

 

Amazon unveils new food-related variable type for Alexa
Speaking of voice assistants, this week Amazon added four new variable types to Alexa’s skillset, including AMAZON.Food. According to  VentureBeat, AMAZON.Food “captures food items, such as ‘bacon,’ ‘scrambled egg,’ and ‘lemon juice,'” so that it can help users save time and have better voice experiences. All the recently-announced skills are in public beta and can be used in skills published to the Alexa Skills Store.

Albertsons adds 10 Tesla semi trucks to its delivery crew
On Tuesday grocery chain Albertsons announced that it is purchasing 10 all-electric Tesla tractors for its Southern California fleet. The trucks will be able to travel between 300 and 500 miles on a single charge, even when pulling a fully stocked trailer. This move is part of the company’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions, as part of their overarching sustainability agenda.

Ember launches copper mug for the holidays
Looking for a gift for the coffee/tea/hot chocolate lover in your life? Ember, the company that makes connected mugs/thermoses that allows users to precisely control the temperature of their drinks, launched a copper mug today. The metallic mug costs $129.99 and joins Embers’ travel and ceramic mug.

 

Vertical farming company Infarm crosses country lines into Paris
Berlin-based startup Infarm, which installs small vertical farms inside grocery stores and restaurants, is expanding out of Germany for the first time — and into Paris (h/t Techcrunch). The French launch of Infarm’s in-store farm unit will be at the Metro flagship store later this month. This expansion comes after the company raised a $25 million Series A in February of this year.

 

Google’s new algorithm can help you avoid food poisoning
Google has teamed up with Harvard to develop an algorithm which alerts you to restaurants that carry a higher risk of food poisoning. As Harvard reports, the algorithm uses machine learning to flags search terms associated with food poisoning (like “vomiting”) and check them against the location history of the affected user. Using this information, it can determine likely restaurant food safety issues, after which it can alert local health inspectors to investigate.

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