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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

vertical farming

Square Roots Unveils Its Third Modular Indoor Farm, Built in Just 3 Months

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company Square Roots today unveiled its newest indoor farm. The facility is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan and growing micro-greens to serve grocery stores, e-commerce platforms, and restaurants in the Great Lakes region. Produce will be available “in the coming weeks,” according to a press release sent to The Spoon. 

Square Roots broke ground on the farm in December of 2020 and planted the first seeds just three months later, in March of this year. The company’s ability to move this quickly can be largely attributed to the types of farms it builds, which company cofounder and CEO Tobias Peggs calls “prefabricated modular farms.” For Square Roots and others, these are typically built inside of upcycled shipping containers (though Peggs suggested over a call this week that the setup could live in any properly insulated space, not just a container). As the word “modular” suggests, farming units can be added or subtracted based on the needs of the individual farm.

The aim he and company cofounder Kimball Musk share is to be able to build a farm quickly in response to demand for local produce in a given area. The new farm in Michigan, for example, is partly in response to the increase in demand for local produce across the Midwest during the Covid-19 pandemic. And it doesn’t get much more local than placing the farm in the same zip code as its customers, as Peggs said is the case here. 

The Michigan farm also shares a location with U.S. food distributor Gordon Food Service, with whom Square Roots has an ongoing partnership. The companies first joined forces in 2019 and plan to build more of these these co-located farms across the country.

One bonus of the prefabricated modular model versus something like a large plant factory (a la Plenty or AeroFarms) is that the size of the farm can be scaled up or down to meet demand relatively quickly by adding or subtracting containers. Each container is its own grow environment, with temperature and lighting adjusted to meet the needs of a specific crop.   

All containers are cloud-connected and run by a combination of human growers and Square Roots in-house software called The Square Roots Farmer Toolbelt. The latter guides farmers through day-to-day activities and collects data that can then be analyzed to improve yield, taste, and texture in addition to growing methods.

As far as competition goes, Berlin, Germany-based InFarm is probably the most similar operation to Square Roots right now. However, InFarm’s modular concept was only announced this year, and at last check is only slated for one U.S. location right now.

For now, the new farm is growing microgreens and herbs, as is the case with other Square Roots farms. Peggs said during our talk that growing other produce types, whether it be strawberries or root vegetables, is less a question of capability these days and one that’s more about economics. At the risk of oversimplifying the matter, is costs more money to grow denser vegetables, like a turnip, compared to something like basil.

That said, Square Roots mentioned in today’s press release that it has grown over 200 varieties of produce so far, including some of those denser varieties like root vegetables. 

AeroFarms Partners With Hortifrut to Grow Blueberries, Caneberries Via Vertical Farming

Vertical farming company AeroFarms this week announced it a partnership with Chile-based berry producer and distributor Hortifrut. Via the multi-year partnership, the companies will research and develop blueberry and caneberry production in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) settings, including vertical farms.

Up to now, AeroFarms has been known primarily for growing leafy greens and herbs inside its commercial-scale vertical farms on the east coast. Blueberries and caneberries (blackberries, raspberries, etc.) are both a departure from the usual from AeroFarms, and somewhat unique in the vertical farming space, where strawberries are more common. 

According to a press release, the first phase of the partnership between the two companies is underway, and blueberry plants will arrive at AeroFarms’ New Jersey facility this spring. Hortifrut has bred “compact blueberry plants ideal for vertical farming,” while AeroFarms has adjusted its proprietary tech system for berry production. 

While the companies aim to commercialize the process of growing these berries indoors, there is not yet any kind of timeframe as to when we might see vertically grown blueberries or caneberries on store shelves. Rather, this first phase of the partnership appears to be more about experimenting with Hortifrut berries in an indoor setting and assessing how feasible it is to grow such foods via CEA.

Fruit on the vertical farm is still the exception rather than the rule when it comes to the crops companies grow. As noted above, strawberries are more common at this point, with companies like SinGrow and Oishii growing high-end versions of the berry and Plenty partnering with Driscoll’s on the west coast. 

AeroFarms’ news comes just days after the company announced it will go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Spring Valley Acquisition Corp.

AeroFarms to Go Public Via SPAC Deal

Large-scale vertical farming company AeroFarms announced today it will go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. Once the deal goes through, AeroFarms will become publicly traded on the Nasdaq under the ARFM ticker symbol. The combined company is expected to have an estimated equity value of about $1.2 billion.

Certified B Corporation AeroFarms also noted that the deal will help to fund things like expanding retail distribution, constructing additional farms, and further developing the technology that powers the company’s growing operations. 

Headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, AeroFarms grows leafy greens via indoor vertical farms that rely on LED light recipes, hydroponics, and software to grow plants. The company, which has raised $238 million to date, currently distributes products in the New York Metro Area as well as online via Whole Foods, FreshDirect, AmazonFresh, and Shop Rite.

The announcement comes not long after another controlled-environment agriculture company, AppHarvest, also went public via SPAC earlier this year. AppHarvest (also a Certified B Corp) completed a merger with Novus Capital Corp. and began trading on the Nasdaq on February 1. Its high-tech greenhouse model differs considerably from AeroFarms in terms of both the facility and the crops, but the end goal is similar — get pesticide-free, more locally grown produce to more people.

IPOs aside, it has been a busy month for the indoor farming space, with vertical farms Plenty and Bowery both expanding their retail footprint, Sweden’s Grönska raising $2.4 million, and Bablyon Microfarms closing a $3 million seed round.

AeroFarms said today that the merger has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both it and Spring Valley, and now just needs the approval of Spring Valley shareholders.  

Bowery Farming Brings Its Vertically Grown Greens to Albertsons Stores

Indoor ag company Bowery Farming announced today a partnership with Albertsons that will put Bowery’s vertically grown greens into hundreds of grocery stores. From today, Bowery produce is available at an initial 275 Albertsons-owned Safeway and Acme stores in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S.

To start, Bowery’s most popular products will be available at these stores. That includes a few different lettuce varieties as well as basil. All crops are grown in vertically stacked trays inside Bowery’s commercial-scale farms, which use a hydroponic system and a proprietary software platform that controls conditions inside the farm, such as temperature, humidity, and light intensity.

The system can also, through more advanced automation, detect potential problems with plants before they happen. This in turn can lead to better overall yields and higher-quality food that tastes better for consumers. 

Speaking of that technology. Bowery founder and CEO Irving Fain told me earlier this year that “The system [for] indoor farming that you choose has a direct impact on the crops you’ll be able to grow, on the margins you’ll be able to generate, and on the return profile of the business itself.”

Bowery is also at work on its most technologically advanced farm to-date, which will open in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania later in 2021.  

The company’s retail expansion comes at the same time indoor ag’s presence in mainstream grocery stores is on the uptick. Plenty, which operates commercial-scale vertical farms on the West Coast, just expanded its own Albertsons partnership in California. Kalera has partnerships with Publix stores around the U.S., and InFarm, based in Berlin, Germany, has come stateside in the last year via a deal with Kroger.

A demand for more local, traceable food is one reason for indoor ag’s increased presence in the grocery store. When we spoke, Fain noted that vertical farming can provide a more efficient, reliable way to get fresh produce into the hands of more customers.  

Bowery’s completion of its Pennsylvania farm, which is slated to be the company’s largest to date, will allow for further expansion into grocery stores around the East Coast. 

Kalera Expands Its Vertical Farm Network to Minnesota

Vertical farming company Kalera today announced its plans to open a commercial growing facility in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is the eighth farm that is either open or in the works for Orlando, Florida-based Kalera. 

For a long time, Kalera primarily served the hospitality industry in Orlando with its HyCube vertical farming facility. The company broke ground on another and bigger location in that city in 2019. At the time, the company planned to focus mainly on the Southeastern region of the U.S.

The pandemic, of course, changed all that. With most restaurants shut down or fulfilling lower order volumes, Kalera pivoted to retail via a partnership with grocery store chain Publix in 2020. The company also started expanding beyond the Southeast U.S. and is now, in terms of geographical footprint, one of the fastest-growing commercial vertical farming companies. 

Kalera’s controlled environment farms use a mix of hydroponics, sensors, LEDs, and some automation to grow a variety of leafy greens. Besides the two facilities in Orlando, the company also operates a farm in Atlanta, which just opened. Facilities in Houston, Denver, Columbus (Ohio), Seattle, and Hawaii are currently under construction. The company says that once all of these farms plus the Minnesota facility are open, Kalera will have a total projected yield of “tens of millions of heads of lettuce per year, or the equivalent of over 1,000 acres of traditional field farms,” according to today’s press release.

Kalera’s announcement comes just days after a slew of other new developments in the controlled environment agriculture space. Last week alone, Babylon Microfarms and Grönska both announced funding rounds and Plenty expanded into new grocery retailers in California. Prior to that GoodLeaf Farms announced plans to expand across Canada and InFarm unveiled its modular commercial-scale farms.

For its part, Kalera also recently acquired Vindara, a company that develops seeds specifically bred for indoor farming environments.  

Sweden’s Grönska Raises $2.4M to Expand Its Vertical Farming Operation

Swedish vertical farming company Grönska announced today it has raised 20.5 million SEK (~$2.4 million). Investors in the round include 82an Invest, PEAS Industries, Rite Ventures, Martas Explorers, Daniel Sachs AB, and Investor Group led by Tectonic Shift.

There are two different parts of Grönska’s business. The company grows leafy greens in a fully controlled vertical farming environment, then sells the produce via retailers and restaurants, including Coop, ICA, and Urban Deli. 

The company also recently launched its GrowOff cultivation system, which is a smaller, five-story controlled-environment grow system. Grönska ships pre-seeded trays to users, who can track plant growth from a corresponding smartphone app. While theoretically the system could work anywhere, its size — on par with Farm.One and Babylon Microfarms — is probably best suited to a grocery store or restaurant environment. 

Europe has historically been known more for greenhouse technology than the massive vertical farms rapidly expanding across the U.S. However there is a growing number of startups in Europe now using the vertical method. Last year, Nordic Harvest struck a deal with Taiwan-based Yes Health Group to build out a massive vertical farm outside of Copenhagen, Denmark. On a smaller scale, Berlin, Germany’s InFarm has expanded its pod-like vertical farms across numerous grocery retail stores in the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile, Finland’s iFarm licensees its grow system to other companies in Europe and the Middle East.

Grönska said in today’s press release that it is seeing high demand for GrowOff. Moving forward, the company’s focus will be on increasing sales and production in Sweden and around Europe. This week’s funding round will also allow Grönska to further develop the technology powering both its farm and its GrowOff systems.

Oishii Raises $50M to Raise More High-End, Vertically Grown Strawberries

Vertical farming company Oishii has raised $50 million in Series A funding, according to a press release sent to The Spoon today. The round was led by SPARX Group’s Mirai Creation Fund II, with participation from Sony Innovation Fund, PKSHA Technology, Social Starts, and several angel investors. It brings Oishii’s total funding to date to $55 million.

With the new funds, Oishii will expand its flagship vertical farm, which is located just outside of New York City. Unlike the majority of companies currently in the vertical farming space, Oishii does does not grow the standard leafy greens and herbs. Instead, the company grows strawberries — specifically, the Omakase variety.

The Omakase Berry typically only grows for a short part of the year in a very specific region of Japan. Oishii founder and CEO Hiroki Koga decided, when building out his vertical farm, to attempt to replicate the elements of a perfect day in Japan (e.g., humidity levels, light) inside a controlled-environment farm in the U.S. The realist is an Omakase Berry that can grow 365 days per year.

The Oishii grow system combines the automation technologies found on many vertical farms today with traditional strawberry cultivation methods developed in Japan specifically for the Omakase berry.

Oishii first introduced its berries in 2018; they are currently available for pickup and delivery in New York City. As produce goes, these products aren’t cheap. A pack of eight strawberries goes for $50, not including delivery fees or tip. Berries are also available at select retailers around New York City, most of them high-end speciality food shops.

Given its price point and limited availability, Oishii’s Omakase Berry is probably not destined to reach huge numbers of consumers — the goal of many other controlled ag farming operations. Instead, the mission seems to be about providing U.S.-based consumers with the experience of tasting something they would ordinarily only be able to get in one tiny region at one time of year.

Oishii said that this week’s funding will go also go towards developing other varieties of strawberries as well as growing other types of produce, such as tomatoes.

The company joins SinGrow, Plenty, and others in moving vertical farming beyond leafy greens. 

Nordetect Raises $1.5M for Lab-on-a-Chip Controlled Ag Analysis

Nordetect, a Danish startup that provides portable nutrient testing for indoor and vertical farms, announced yesterday that it has raised a $1.5 million round of Seed funding. The round was led by Luminate NY with participation from Rockstart, SOSV (HAX), PreSeed Ventures and Vækstfonden (The Danish Growth Fund).

The company was founded in 2016 and makes a “lab-on-a-chip” testing device that can analyze agricultural samples for nutrients such as Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium and more. Nordetect’s one-click device and test kits can test conducts multiple tests in a matter of minutes.

For indoor and controlled ag farms, Nordetect says that its test can help growers maintain and balance proper levels of nutrients, water and light for greater crop yields.

There are plenty of ag sensor companies helping farmers better understand their growing conditions. However, soil sensor companies like CropX, Arable and Teralytic are all built for outdoor use. Given the rush of funding that went into and the expansion of indoor farms last year, there will undoubtedly be a number of sensor solutions that come to market for the controlled ag space. With all of that increased funding and expansion, indoor ag companies will need to maximize their yield to prove out the promise of controlled agriculture

Last August, Nordetect’s technology won top honors (and €10,000) at agtech company Priva’s Horti Heroes challenge, which showcased innovative horticultural companies. In this week’s press announcement, Nordetect said that it will use its new funding to commercialize it technology platform and give indoor and vertical farmers in the U.S and Western Europe early access to its lab-on-a-chip analysis devices.

Plenty Expands to More Stores in Northern California, Launches Text-a-Farmer Feature

Vertical farming company Plenty today announced an expansion to 17 more Safeway stores across Northern California, as well as a new tech feature that lets shoppers text Plenty’s farmers directly.

According to a press release sent to The Spoon, the Northern California expansion is part of the multi-year deal between Plenty and Safeway parent company Albertsons. Through that deal, leafy greens grown in Plenty’s controlled-environment vertical farming facility in the San Francisco Bay Area get shipped to Albertsons stores up and down California. The goal is to eventually get plenty’s produce into more than 430 Albertsons stores, including those under the Safeway and Vons brands.

Simultaneous to this expansion is the launch of what Plenty calls its Text-a-Farmer feature. The tool functions much like its name suggests. A sign in the grocery store’s produce section will display a number users can text questions to. Those questions can be about anything related to Plenty’s produce, from “How should I store my greens?” to “Is your packaging recyclable?” Plenty farmers answer the questions in real time via text with the customer.

The Text-a-Farmer feature will be available at stores selling Plenty’s produce. The idea is to give shoppers more information about their food while they are still in the store.

Commercial-scale vertical farming as a whole, meanwhile, continues to expand, raking in the investment dollars in the process. Bowery, based on the East Coast U.S., recently announced its most “technologically advanced” farm to date, while Orlando, Florida-based Kalera is building out facilities across the U.S., including Colorado and Texas. On the investment front, GoodLeaf just raised $65 million to expand across Canada, Stockholm, Sweden-based Urban Oasis raised $1.2 million, and Plenty itself nabbed $140 million. The latter happened this past October.

Around the time of that investment, Plenty also announced a partnership with Driscoll’s to grow strawberries via vertical farming. Plenty also operates a farm in Compton, California, to service southern parts of the state. 

GoodLeaf Farms Raises $65M, Plans Vertical Farm Expansion Across Canada

GoodLeaf Farms announced this week it has raised more than $65 million from food manufacturer McCain Foods and is set to embark on “an aggressive growth and expansion plan” for its network of vertical farms, according to an email sent to The Spoon.

Based in Ontario, Canada, GoodLeaf grows leafy greens inside a controlled-environment vertical farm via hydroponics and its own proprietary tech setup that controls light, temperature, and humidity levels, as well as other elements on the farm. The company opened its first farm in 2019 in Guelph, Ontario. According to this week’s press release, two more farms are slated to open in Canada 2021: one in the Eastern side of the country and one out west. Exact locations will be announced soon.

“It is our intention to build farms that support the Canadian grocery store network, food service industry and consumers,” GoodLeaf CEO Barry Murchie said in a statement sent to The Spoon. Currently, the company provides greens to a number of brick-and-mortar as well as grocery stores servicing Ontario, including Fortinos, Whole Foods, and Bondi Produce.

One of GoodLeaf’s goal with its farms is to produce greens closer to where Canadian consumers actually shop for food, rather than these consumers having to buy produce shipped from the U.S. and Mexico. It’s a goal echoed by other Canadian control ag companies, including Lufa Farms, which is growing greens on Montreal rooftops, and Elevate Farms, which is bringing vertical farming to food-insecure areas in the country. Bringing production closer to consumers also means fewer miles to transport the food, which is better for the environment.

With its forthcoming farms, GoodLeaf will serve more grocery outlets as well as foodservice businesses beyond Ontario and across Canada.

Kalera Acquires Vindara to Optimize Seed Breeding for Indoor Vertical Farming

Vertical farming company Kalera announced this week it has acquired Vindara, a company developing seeds specifically for the indoor vertical farming environment and other controlled environment agriculture methods. With this acquisition, Kalera says it can increase both crop yield and the speed of growth cycles in its current and future facilities.

Kalera currently has two commercial-scale vertical farms in operation, both in Orlando, Florida. The company is also expanding rapidly, with new locations across the U.S. in the works. Facilities in Atlanta, Denver, and Houston are slated to open in 2021.

Typically, seeds for outdoor farming are bred to resist things like disease and pests. The drawback of that method is that plant flavor, texture, and nutritional profile is often sacrificed in the process. But in a fully controlled indoor grow environment like a vertical farm, pests are nonexistent and growers and systems have better control over monitoring the danger of plant diseases. 

That gives companies like Vindara an opportunity to produce seeds bred for flavor, color, nutritional content, and better overall quality. The company combines genomics, machine learning and computational biology with traditional breeding techniques to get its seeds, which are non-GMO and which Vindara says take 12 to 18 months to develop, rather than the standard five to seven years.

With the acquisition, Vindara will become a “fully owned subsidiary” of Kalera and operate out of the latter’s headquarters in Orlando. For Kalera, the acquisition brings the potential to develop its own plant varieties and increase the output of existing ones. Right now those are just leafy greens, though Kalera hinted at spinach and strawberries for the future. 

Bowery’s Founder, Irving Fain, on the Future of Vertical Farming

At one point in the not-so-distant past, vertical farming’s role in our future agricultural system was far from certain. Growing leafy greens in warehouse-like environments controlled by tech seemed like a compelling business, but one that had yet to prove itself either economically or as an important source of food for a growing world population.

That, at least, was a common sentiment Irving Fain, CEO and founder of Bowery, met with when he started his vertical farming company five years ago. “There was a bit of skepticism around it,” he told me over a call recently, suggesting that five years ago, there were a lot more “ifs” than “whens” in terms of vertical farming’s future.

Fain, Bowery, and the entire vertical farming industry get a much warmer reception nowadays. Investment dollars are pouring into the space. Around the world, companies, scientists, and food producers are using the method to not just supply upscale grocery stores with greens but experiment with breeds of produce, feed underserved populations, and grow food in non-arable regions. As Fain suggested when we spoke, the last 12 months seem to have turned those “ifs” into definite “whens.” 

Bowery’s last 12 months also illustrate this change. Fain said that Bowery went from under 100 retail locations about a year ago to nearly 700 right now, and will be in more than 1,000 “in the coming months.” Its produce is in a number of food retailers around the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, including Whole Foods Market, Giant Food, Stop & Shop, Walmart, and Weis Markets. And in 2020, the company experienced “more than 4x growth” with e-commerce partners.

While the pandemic is responsible for some of this popularity, Fain insists it is not the only reason for the eventful year. “It’s definitely bigger than the pandemic,” he said. “What you’re seeing is a food system that’s evolving and [people have a desire] to see transparency and traceability in the food system.” These, he says, are issues the traditional food supply chain isn’t really able to address right now, hence the opportunity for companies like Bowery, which effectively cut multiple steps out of the supply chain.

Bowery grows its greens (lettuces, herbs, and some custom blends) inside industrial spaces where crops are stacked vertically in trays and fed nutrients and water via a hydroponic system. Technology controls all elements of the farm, from the temperature inside to how much light each plants get. The company currently operates two farms, one in New Jersey and the other in Maryland. A third is planned for Pennsylvania.

Technology, in particular, is something Bowery has big plans for. On top of a retail expansion, Bowery also added some notable personnel to its staff, including Injong Rhee, formerly the Internet of Things VP at Google as well a chief technologist at Samsung. Having such technology chops onboard will be vital in order for Bowery to realize many of its ambitions around advanced automation, which has the potential to optimize many parts of the seed-to-store process for vertically grown greens. 

For example, Bowery’s farms are equipped with sensors and cameras that are constantly collecting data — “billions” of points, according to the company — that can be used to not just observe the current state of plant health but also predict the most optimal growing conditions for each crop. Elements like temperature, humidity levels, nutrient levels, and light intensity can all be adjusted, via the BoweryOS software, to create those optimal conditions. The end result is more consistent crop production, better yields, more flavorful food, and, ideally, a better nutritional profile for the greens compared to what conventional produce offers.

The system can also, through automation and AI, detect problems with plants. In a recent interview with Venture Beat, Bowery Chief Science Officer Henry Sztul used the example of butterhead lettuce yellowing at the edges during growth. Bowery’s system is technologically advanced enough at this point that it is starting to understand the conditions that create those yellowing edges. That foreknowledge, in turn, will allow growers to adjust the crop “recipe” (see above mixture of lights, temperature, etc.) to avoid the problem.

It took Bowery years to get to this point in terms of what its technology is capable of doing. “The system [for] indoor farming that you choose has a direct impact on the crops you’ll be able to grow, on the margins you’ll be able to generate, and on the return profile of the business itself,” said Fain. “And so being incredibly intentional and thoughtful about what technology you use is something we spent a lot of time on because it has an extraordinarily important economic impact.”

On a less technically complex note, controlled ag from Bowery and others also goes some way towards reinventing the supply food chain. Rather than greens being harvested in, say, Mexico and shipped via a complex distribution process all the way to Baltimore, they are packaged up at the farm and distributed to nearby retailers, usually those within a day’s drive “It is much more sustainable. It is much more efficient, and it’s more reliable, and those things have been important to consumers long before COVID,” said Fain.

Bowery will continue to innovate on both the technology and supply side of its business, as well as with the food itself. The company just launched a new specialty product line that will experiment with different flavors of greens and change frequently.

In terms of tech, Bowery’s latest farm, currently being built in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, will incorporate even more automation than the company’s two existing farms. That location is slated to open later in 2021. When it does, Bowery will be capable of serving nearly 50 million people within a 200-mile radius.

The company hopes to expand its geographic reach much wider some day, building farms near most major U.S. cities and beyond. Given the increased confidence in the vertical farming sector as a whole, now looks to be the optimal time to move towards those ambitions.