Vertical farms: Start a farm in your bedroom

Small indoor farms in garage or bedroom, growing in popularity with price-competitive microgreens for salads or sandwiches.

AGRICULTURE & HOME BUSINESS

Vertical farms: Start a farm in your bedroom

A very new kind of very small indoor farm is growing in popularity in the United States and was the focus of a New York Times article this week (29/06/2016).

What follows is a summary and paraphrase  (see original here).

BEDROOM OR GARAGE HAS ENOUGH SPACE

This kind of farm has no fields, ploughs or even soil or sunlight.

The new "vertical farm", as it is called, needs very little space and could even be located in the city.

The farm that the article discusses (and also video above) is named Farmbox Greens and it is located in a small garage of a home in Seattle.

Other vertical farms have even been made in the small space of a bedroom.

Such vertical farms typically produce 20 times as much food as outdoor farming.

Academics who research this kind of farming call it Controlled - environment agriculture (CEA) which means technology-based food production that provides protection to plants and "maintains optimal growing conditions throughout the development of the crop. Production takes place within an enclosed growing structure such as a greenhouse or building" (see wikipedia here & Cornell University program here).

HYDROPONICS TECHNOLOGY IN TRAYS STACKED VERTICALLY

The farm uses hydroponics technology with plants sitting in trays stacked vertically to save space.

The roots of the plant sit in water to which nutrients have been added and instead of sun, LED lights shine on the plants.

The plants grown are called micro - greens and they take only two weeks to grow. 

Microgreens can be used in salads or sandwiches or as a garnish on any dish. 

SPEED OF GROWING, LITTLE TRANSPORTATION COST

 The speed of growing and little to no transportation cost, because the farm is located in the city, makes vegetables fresher and competitive in terms of price with other vegetables on the market.

The little farm sells its vegetables to restaurants, a small local chain of grocery stores and so-called "farmers markets" public markets with many farmers selling their own produce, that are held four times a week in Seattle.

ELECTRICITY FOR LIGHTS BIGGEST COST

The biggest cost and problem that has to be overcome to make these vertical farm startup businesses profitable is the cost of electricity to run LED lights 24 hours a day (24/7).

The LED lights also produce heat so electricity has to also be spent on fans to cool the indoor farm down too.

Since the vertical farms are indoors, money can be saved on pesticides, water and fertiliser (or better "nutrients").

Vertical farms typically have other environmentally-friendly goals such as reducing their carbon footprint and recycling the fertiliser, so the farm produces little or no waste products.

The business idea is perfect for people who have to work at home such as mothers or disabled people.

FARMING PROCESS

Dan Albert, the owner of Farmbox Greens, describes the process for vertical farming in the YouTube video above. What follows is a transcript:

"The seeds are planted on the cloth."

"After a few days, the seeds have germinated and we expose them to light."

"The roots go down into the nutrient rich water and the leaves grow up towards the light."

"And after five to seven days under light, we take the flats off and we harvest everything by hand."

"And we package it up and we ensure quality and minimise any roots or seeds or anything like that, any debris that could be in he product."

"And that way, it is the cleanest product that we can harvest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/30/business/smallbusiness/growing-greens-in-the-spare-room-as-vertical-farm-start-ups-flourish.html

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