Blog Archives

New Arize® Factor Grow Light Brings Better Optics and Efficiency to Indoor Vertical Farms

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on April 13, 2021. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News.

Indoor Ag-Con 2021 Exhibitor HortAmericas shares this news from GE Current:
GE Current, a Daintree company, today introduced the Arize Factor Multilayer (ML) Series, the latest addition to its lineup of horticulture fixtures for indoor farms and greenhouses. Assembled in the USA, the Arize Factor packages improved optics and optimized light spectrums to become an industry-leading, efficient choice for indoor vertical farms.

Indoor Ag-Con 2021 Exhibitor HortAmericas GE Current — Assembled in the USA, the new Arize® Factor ML Series from Current offers superior performance for cannabis growers and vertical farm operations.

The series includes two versions: the Arize Factor ML900, a 2-bar array designed to provide high light output for indoor cannabis growing; and the Arize Factor ML300, which features 4-, 5- and 6-bar arrays designed specifically for optimized growth of densely packed leafy greens, herbs and microgreens.

Growers will be able to take advantage of a number of options and additional features with the Factor:

A custom light optic provides extra wide, uniform light dispersion over the grow area. The end result is fewer hotspots, more even growth and fewer bars needed to achieve optimum harvests.
Installation is easier than with the competition thanks to its modular design and two mounting options. Growers can choose universal wire hangers to suspend the grow lights from the top of the rack, or a transversal member that easily clips onto the sides of the grow rack and mounts to the bars.

There are three broad spectra options to select from depending on the crop, along with multiple plug options available for connection flexibility and dimming capabilities.
The Factor boasts an L90 rating of 50,000 hours.

Assembled in the USA

Notably, the Factor is the first of Current’s horticulture fixtures to be assembled in the USA in its Hendersonville, North Carolina, factory. Built in 1955, this 850,000-square-foot manufacturing facility employs over 325 people, with more jobs anticipated as demand for Current solutions and Arize products increases.

“The Arize Factor incorporates 20-plus years of LED fixture design combined with over 65 years of manufacturing excellence and scale in Hendersonville, North Carolina,” said Mike Doss, Current’s VP of Specialty. “Whatever crop you are growing, there is a Factor “flavor” that will suit your needs, proudly assembled in the Appalachians.”

Melissa Wesorick, chief marketing & strategy officer at Current, added: “Our recent investments in the factory and the hiring of more workers demonstrate our commitment to the Hendersonville area. The onshoring of horticultural fixture assembly is part of our long-term strategic vision of creating an American center of excellence in horticulture, in addition to supporting American jobs and reducing lead time for our customers.”

Customers should contact Hort Americas for more details.

To learn more about Current, the new Arize Factor and Current’s leadership in the horticulture industry, visit www.gecurrent.com/horticulture.

About GE Current, a Daintree company:

Current enhances commercial, industrial, city and specialty applications with advanced lighting and intelligent controls. Working with our partners, we deliver the best possible outcomes for our customers. See why Current is always on at www.gecurrent.com.

Netled Launches Its First Vertical Farm In North America

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on March 14, 2021. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News.

Netled and Calgary-based Rambridge Wholesale Supply have entered into a key strategic partnership that will bring Vera vertical farming technology to the North American market for the first time.

Vera Compact Vertical Farming System

In May 2021, Rambridge will take delivery of the Vera Compact vertical farming system, which will also become Netled’s first vertical farm in North America. It will produce lettuce and herbs and function as a working example for North American customers. Vera Compact is a modular vertical farming system that allows growers to start small and scale up their operations in line with demand.

Vertical Farming In Canada

“Vertical farming is still quite early-stage in Canada. Growers have been setting up their own systems because there is no current turn-key provider who can guarantee quality technology, equipment, and installation. Netled’s Vera products fill that gap,” says Brent Parker, President at Rambridge Wholesale Supply.

“The market for a system like the Vera Compact is significant. There are many places like close-to-market supermarkets and restaurants who would benefit hugely from the Compact system. It also suits growers who want to start small, but have growth expectations. Vera Compact allows them to grow in a modular way as their operations, market share and budget grow,” he continues.

“At Rambridge, we are super excited to be able to offer top-quality vertical farming technology via the Vera Compact system.”

About Rambridge Wholesale Supply and Netled Ltd

Rambridge Wholesale Supply is a family-run manufacturer and wholesale distributor based in Calgary, Canada, with a focus on indoor and outdoor garden and greenhouse goods.

Netled Ltd. designs and builds the high-tech platform for the world’s smartest vertical farms offering an extensive range of products for all segments of vertical farming from in-store growing cabinets all the way to massive-scale industrial projects via its Vera technology.

Chief Operating Officer, Niko Kurumaa, who is also in charge of North American sales, understands the significance of the partnership with Rambridge.

“This is a key strategic partnership with Rambridge that allows us to bring our Vera technology to the North American market via an established and well-respected company. Rambridge has supplied garden and greenhouse goods throughout Canada and the United States for over 35 years. Now they can also offer their customers cutting-edge vertical farming technology as a turn-key service. We are thrilled to be working with them to both serve and develop the North American market,” says Kurumaa.

The Market For Vertical Farming Systems In North America

The market for vertical farming systems throughout North America is rapidly developing. Brent Parker thinks that now is the perfect time to capitalize on those developments.

“Vertical farming represents the future of controlled-environment production in Canada. As the climate changes and ever-more unpredictable weather, pest, and disease pressures become commonplace, vertical farming represents an opportunity for safe and reliable food production. Vertical farming also means food is produced locally, which reduces the carbon footprint associated with transportation, reduces supply-chain costs, and reduces water consumption. It ensures customers are able to enjoy a fresher product, and one that is more sustainably produced,” says Parker.

“And we’re not just talking about the Compact system. There is a huge potential market for the Vera Instore system too,” he continues. “Grocery stores across the country would benefit immensely from hyper-local crop production and instore growing cabinets. We can’t wait to bring Netled and its Vera technology to North America,” he concludes.

New Sustainability Partnership Launched Between Sodexo and ZipGrow Inc.

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on March 14, 2021. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News, Las Vegas 2020 Exhibitor News Release.

On March 11, 2021 two international industry leaders, Sodexo and ZipGrow Inc., launched a first of its kind partnership to develop more sustainable local food chains throughout North America.

Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Life Services, has joined forces with ZipGrow Inc., the manufacturer of the world’s most installed vertical hydroponic equipment. Together they wll develop a unique program to introduce sustainable growing systems to facilities throughout Canada and the United States of America.

Introducing Innovative Technology

One of Sodexo’s primary goals is to ensure all our operations are industry leading from a sustainability perspective. “This new partnership with ZipGrow Inc. not only enables us to reduce our carbon emissions of distance traveled for food source, onsite food waste, and packaging requirements, but also to introduce innovative technology to our facilities and team members”, said Normand St-Gelais, Director of Corporate Responsibility, Sodexo Canada.

ZipGrow Systems To Be Installed At Sodexo Locations

ZipGrow™ technology is a patented system that utilizes both hydroponic growing systems and vertical planes to maximize production volume within a small footprint. Primarily growing leafy greens such as lettuce and kale, along with herbs and small fruiting crops such as strawberries, ZipGrow systems will be installed in Sodexo locations including educational institutions, conference facilities, and corporate food service centres.

“Having been installed throughout the world over the past decade, our system enables growers, both big and small, to access fresh produce no matter where they are located”, explains Eric Lang, President of ZipGrow Inc. “We are excited to move ahead with this new partnership with Sodexo. Together we will be able to introduce sustainable food to Sodexo locations throughout North America.”

“As a Chef, we are always looking for ways to introduce the freshest possible produce to our kitchens”, said Chef Davide Del Brocco, Sustainability Manager, Sodexo Canada. “By having a grow system on site, we can now not only customize our produce to meet our upcoming needs, but we can also now harvest fresh greens and use them that same day.”

“Having like-minded partners like ZipGrow who understand what is important to us and who are aligned with our values and goals is crucial in working together for a Better Tomorrow.” said Andrea Cantin, Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinator, Sodexo Canada. With Sodexo and ZipGrow Inc. both having company values strongly embedded in sustainability, this new partnership will see this innovative agriculture technology being introduced to multiple Sodexo facilities in Canada and the US.

About Sodexo

Sodexo delivers a wide range of customized solutions, designed to optimize work and living environments. The company has been providing food and facilities management services in Canada for over 40 years, with a focus on enhancing safety, work process and well-being. A market leader in Canada, Sodexo has been recognized as a top employer for the past seven consecutive years. Sodexo is proud to have created the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, an independent charitable organization that has raised over $3 million to fight hunger and donated more than one million meals to at-risk youth across Canada since 2007. It is included in the CAC 40, FTSE 4 Good and DJSI indices.

Key figures (as November 2020)
420,000 employees
1st in its sector in both the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and the 2020 SAM sustainability yearbook
64 countries
100 million consumers served daily

About ZipGrow Inc.

ZipGrow Inc. is an international leader in indoor, vertical farming technology. Our flagship product, the ZipGrow™ Tower, is a core component of many of the world’s most innovative farms; from indoor hydroponic warehouses to vertical aquaponic greenhouses and and high-density container farms. For more information contact hello@zipgrow.com or at 1-855-ZIPGROW.

Making Waves: Indoor Saltwater Farm Strives For Sustainability, Marsh Restoration

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on March 14, 2021. Posted in Blog.

Q & A With Heron Farms Founder Sam Norton

Based in Charleston, SC, indoor saltwater farm Heron Farms has an ambitious mission – “To create a sustainable agricultural system and restore the marsh using the earth’s most abundant resource – saltwater.”

Company founder Sam Norton is up to the task. His company is successfully tackling saltwater agriculture’s scalability challenges; growing and selling sea beans; restoring marshlands around his Charleston home, and even helping farmers in Bangladesh.

Indoor Ag-Con had the chance to catch up with Sam to learn more about his innovative company, environmental efforts, and future plans in this month’s Indoor Ag-Con CEO Q & A.

Among the biggest challenges with outdoor saltwater agriculture is scalability. As the world’s first indoor saltwater farm, how are you confronting this challenge?

My interest in saltwater agriculture was piqued during undergraduate school. I met a member of the Boeing biofuel strategy team who encouraged me to check out the company’s work growing Salicornia (a succulent, halophyte, i.e., salt tolerant, plant) in the Middle East. I learned that the plant Boeing was growing for biofuel was the very one I had seen – and eaten – growing up in Charleston, SC. I ended up writing my capstone on seawater agriculture and Boeing’s efforts. As I continued to watch Boeing and others attempting to grow Salicornia outdoors, it seemed there were three consistent scaling problems:

Land Constraints – If you want to pump seawater in for crops, you need to be near the coast. If you’re near the coast, chances are you’re going to bump up against humans. And, they’re generally not interested in having this type of project on their land. We saw this happen in Eritrea, the UAE and other areas.
Sodium Chloride — If you find a place near the coast that is deserted enough to work, you usually run into another problem. If the annual precipitation is less than the annual evaporation, sodium chloride builds up in the soil. This happens to such a degree that even the most salt tolerant plants cannot survive.
Seasonality – Salicornia flowers in response to photoperiod changes at the end of summer. As that happens, the edibility option disappears.

So if you want to grow these plants for food, you can scale by taking seawater agriculture indoors and growing vertically. This way you can manage salt build-up and control the photoperiod.

Outdoor seawater agriculture, on the other hand, can work well if the main product is outside the food space – focusing instead on producing raw materials for things like biofuels, pharmaceuticals and even fabrics.

Interestingly, we did find an outdoor situation where two of these three issues can be addressed — rice paddies of Bangladesh that have become salinized due to sea level rise. Land use is not an issue as it is already dedicated to rice production. During the non-monsoon season, there is no rain to flush out sodium chloride. The incoming seawater is too saline for rice, resulting in decreasing yields for farmers. I took a trip there last year to join the Bangladeshi Ministry of Agriculture and the Dutch Firm ICCO to look at the idea of growing salt tolerant crops like Salicornia during the non-monsoon season and it seems to work. We are planning an expansion of this project.

Typical indoor farm crops range from leafy greens to mushrooms and a few others that are all very familiar to the consumer. What are some of the marketing challenges in working with a crop like Sea Beans and how are you addressing them?

Most chefs are familiar with Salicornia, which goes by other names like Sea Beans, Sea Pickles, Gatorade Grass, Samphire and Sea Asparagus. To build awareness we have looked to the avocado’s chef marketing model as a guide. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the avocado was not well known in America. The California Growers Association found that if they sold avocados to chefs, the chefs would teach the consumer how to eat an avocado, what to pair it with, how to prepare it and it just took off from there. In fact, I think the avocado was the first fruit to have its own Super Bowl commercial.

As the restaurant business slowed down during the pandemic, we’ve also seen produce delivery services become a very strong distribution channel for us.

Can you share some of the technology you are using at Heron Farms and how/if it differs from more traditional indoor farms growing leafy greens?

We are a hydroponic farm, and our grow room is standard. Heron Farms relies on Boxcar Central’s all-in-one software for monitoring, sales and tracking for hydroponic growing. Our team can log onto a dashboard, see all the parameters and move inventory through the software to cold storage – tracing back if needed — much like most farms.

The seawater manipulation technology is our own. Other crop growers rely on conductivity probes to dose nutrients. The challenge for us is that these probes do not distinguish between sodium chloride salt and nutrient salt. Our technology allows us to distinguish and dose properly when you add seawater to the equation.

Because your farm is indoors AND saltwater, is salt or salt build-up part of the plant’s transpiration process?

The halophytes we grow compartmentalize salt, storing it in their cells. We harvest them at a point where the salt content makes them edible, so there is no leftover salt. If we did not harvest them, the salt would continue to build up in the cell to the point they would become inedible.

A key part of your mission is restoration of the salt marshes. How are you doing that? And, can you also elaborate on Heron Farms’ efforts to partner with other companies to help?

In Charleston, Savannah and other port cities, the Army Corp of Engineers dredges the harbors from time to time to deepen them for container ship passage. The sediment is deposited in confined disposal facilities. When the water evaporates from these areas, the surface of the soil cracks, allowing invasive species to take root. The Army Corp tried restoring the areas with marsh plants using a traditional greenhouse-to-transplant approach, but this can be very costly. We’re focusing our efforts on remediating these spaces using the same halophytes we grow at Heron Farms. We started planting seeds by hand and are now testing out an unmanned drone outfitted to drop the seeds in the right spots.

One of the things we are also working on is demonstrating that a company can raise awareness and funds for a cause without being a non-profit operation. We’ve partnered with a great kombucha beverage company, Dalai Sofia– adding our logo to their packaging. For every can they sell, we replant one square foot of marsh grass. We are also talking to a sunglass company, sea salt company and others on similar partnerships.

The idea? That you can take restoration, latch it onto the back of capitalism, and increase sales. You don’t have to be a non-profit to do this. I really see this concept blowing up this century.

What’s next for Heron Farms?

We have a number of items in the works, including the launch of our next farm site. We are also dabbling with the idea of growing another crop – Yaupon Holly. It’s native to the Southeastern United States. What’s more it doesn’t need a lot of light, and is the only indigenous source of caffeine in North America.

To learn more about Heron Farms, visit www.heronfarms.com

Indoor Ag-Con Heads To Orlando In October 2021

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on March 11, 2021. Posted in Blog, Press Releases.

Premier Trade Show & Conference for Indoor |Vertical Farming Industry To Host In-Person Edition October 4-5, 2021 at Hilton Orlando in Florida

(MARCH 11, 2021) — With safety in mind, the Indoor Ag-Con management team has pushed the dates for its previously announced May 2021 agriculture trade show and conference for the indoor and vertical farming industry to October 4-5, 2021. In addition to the date shift, Indoor Ag-Con will also move from its former Las Vegas location to the Hilton Orlando in Florida for 2021, with plans to return to Las Vegas and co-locate with the National Grocers Association | NGA Show in 2022.

Better Alignment With Covid Vaccine Rollout

“By moving our event to October, we feel we’re better aligned with the expanding Covid-19 vaccine rollout. Growing confidence levels in travel and attendance at live events will also be important,” says Brian Sullivan, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con. “Safety of our audience as priority one. We also wanted to find a new location and venue that offered easy accessibility. Cost-effective accommodations, as well as area activities – both indoor farming as well as entertainment-related – were factors, too. Orlando checked all the boxes.”

“Our 2021 move to the East Coast, coupled with Orlando’s appeal and convenience, also gives us the opportunity to expand our reach. We hope to attract new audiences of growers and start-ups from the region, too,” adds Nancy Hallberg, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con.

Registration and Event Information

Registration for the 2021 edition will open in May. All attendees will be required to adhere to safety protocols. The Indoor Ag-Con team will be closely following the government guidelines for the 2021 event.

Indoor Ag-Con, launched in 2013, showcases the latest technology and business strategies for growing crops in indoor systems. These include those using hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic techniques. The event brings together growers, investors, chefs, produce buyers, academics, policymakers, industry suppliers and advocates.

The 2021 edition will feature an expanded exhibit floor. It will also offer new networking opportunities and some of the industry’s top innovators and business leaders presenting keynote addresses. A range of panel discussions will also be part of the conference.

The Hilton Orlando is centrally located to all major theme-parks and attractions and just minutes from the eclectic dining scene and entertainment of International Drive. The resort resort sits on over 26 acres of lush landscaping and tropical inspirations making it a true destination of its own. Guests are immediately welcomed with an upscale feel enhanced with resort-style accommodations and amenities.

In development now, more information on the 2021 edition’s educational offerings, exhibits and networking events can be found at www.indoor.ag

For 2022, Indoor Ag-Con and The NGA Show will co-locate at Caesars Forum Convention Center in Las Vegas , February 27 – March 1, 2022.

About Indoor Ag-Con

Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con has emerged as the premier trade event for vertical farming | indoor agriculture. This is 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. It covers covers 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, setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally. More information is at https://indoor.ag.

First Major Asian-American Owned Cannabis Enterprise In Norcal Partners With Agnetix Lighting Technology For Three Large-Scale Greenhouses In 2021

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on March 5, 2021. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News, Las Vegas 2020 Exhibitor News Release.

Agnetix, a pioneer in data-driven horticulture lighting technology, has been selected as primary lighting partner by BP Logistics, currently constructing several new Cannabis greenhouses and indoor grows totaling over 110,000FT² in the San Francisco area for a total of over 2,000 high-powered A3 luminaires.

BP Logistics is a California-licensed cultivation group owned by Minh Mai, CEO, and Chauncey Man, COO. Along with their team of experienced cultivators, the high-energy pair is determined to bring Asian Cultivators to the northern California Cannabis market with a forward-thinking grow strategy. Selecting Agnetix A3, the world’s most energy-efficient and most powerful LED horticultural grow light, will ensure they have a significant advantage. This partnership marks a pivotal step in the team’s plan to develop technology-forward and sustainable facilities powered by energy-efficient and intelligent systems including lighting, HVAC, water management, nutrient control, and data capture.

“Agnetix is by far the best grow lighting system on the market today,” said Mr. Mai. “The A3 water-cooled lighting system delivers a tremendous amount of high-quality light that benefits our plants while greatly reducing our carbon footprint.”

The team chose Agnetix as their primary lighting and cultivation management system for its high energy efficiencies and data visibility. Agnetix provides a full suite of value-added benefits and a one-of-kind decision support system, employing energy-efficient LED lighting, canopy-level sensors, networking technology, and data analytics.

“As we make this major shift in our model, having Agnetix as our partner will provide us with a sure path to exceeding our business goals,” adds Mr. Man. “The superior level of customer service from the Agnetix team is unparalleled.”

“We are thrilled to partner with this team and support their unique vision for sustainable growing facilities,” said Jordan Miles, CEO, Agnetix. “Crop visibility, data-driven insights, and remote control are just a few ways we endeavor to mitigate risks across all of their growing facilities and provide a greater peace of mind.”

For more information about the Agnetix A3 water-cooled lighting system visit www.agnetix.com or contact sales@agnetix.com.

About Agnetix

Agnetix is an SEC-registered technology company on a steep growth trajectory focused on the development of advanced horticultural lighting and information technology solutions for commercial indoor and greenhouse growers – both in cannabis and fresh produce markets. The Agnetix Responsive Agriculture™ platform delivers meaningful plant and energy data insights for quick, informed decisions to mitigate risks. The Agnetix system includes highly efficient, water-cooled LED lighting, environmental sensors, AI (Artificial Intelligence) imagers, data, and real-time monitoring solutions. Agnetix helps serious growers to significantly improve their crop yield, reduce their operating cost and run a more profitable business. www.agnetix.com

Creating A Whole New Fresh Food Experience Category | Q&A With Fifth Season CEO Austin Webb

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on February 12, 2021. Posted in Blog.

Fifth Season has been making headlines in recent weeks . In addition to a feature story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, other outlets have covered the vertical-and-robotic-farming pioneer’s expanded distribution partnership with food retailer Giant Eagle Inc., and its designation as “Official Greens” provider for the NHL 2020 -2021 season of the Pittsburgh Penguins. These stories follow many others that have tracked the company’s impressive innovations and accomplishments over the last year.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Fifth Season’s newest vertical farm in Braddock, PA, a historic steel town on the edge of Pittsburgh, features a 25,000-square-foot grow room with twice the growing capacity of traditional vertical farms. It is set to grow more than 500,000 lbs. of produce in its first full year of operation.

Indoor Ag-Con had a chance to catch up with Fifth Season CEO Austin Webb, who co-founded the company with brother Brac Webb (and one of this week’s Indoor Ag-Conversations panelists) and Austin Lawrence. In this Q&A, Austin shares more about company’s mission, unique approach and plans for the future:

Q: The state of PA is quickly becoming a hot spot for indoor vertical farming for food production. What does this mean to you as it relates to providing solid jobs and living wages to a previously economically depressed area?

At Fifth Season, creating a whole new category of fresh food experience is paramount to our mission. As is a deep community engagement across new economic development, new jobs, increased food security, and newfound discovery of STEM/Ag education.

In 2020, Fifth Season donated over 5,000 meals to our neighbors in need. We also successfully hired 100% of our jobs with local Braddock and Pittsburgh residents. This helped to create a new workforce of the future – i.e. new Ag Manufacturing jobs inside the city that have never existed before.

Overall, we chose to build in Pittsburgh’s historic steel town of Braddock for a reason. Solving large global problems with deep, local community engagement is important to us. You would never expect that a company could sustainably grow such clean produce in the heart of steel town USA. But at Fifth Season, that’s what creating a whole new category of fresh food experience is all about.

Q: With Bowery Farming expanding to Bethlehem, do you feel any sense of competition?

Not at all. We are extremely differentiated in this space given our technology and economics. Furthermore, the real competition is traditional outdoor growing out West. Our industry needs to adopt scalable technologies faster, if we’re going to win. At Fifth Season, we’ve developed the first truly scalable technology platform with positive unit economics that work today with one facility – not 5 years from now with a requirement of 5+ facilities. This is also an industry-first.

Q: What’s been the toughest yet most rewarding part of your job as Fifth Season CEO?

Indoor Ag is a tough business. There’s never an easy win; you have to earn them all. The overall resilience it has taken our team to build our disruptive tech platform in such a demanding business with such hard requirements across a breadth of technical factors — including but not limited to hardware, software, grow science, operations design, new food product development, etc. — is extraordinary and rewarding. I am beyond proud of the Fifth Season team.

Q: Is there any part of your job that you never saw coming? Something you’ve done which was not in the job description?

One subset of our values is “no job is too small.” So whatever it takes to complete the mission, it’s in the job description. And this makes our challenging jobs here at Fifth Season even more fun. It’s inspiring to see engineers, horticulturalists, food scientists, product managers, supply chain specialists, and marketing gurus coming together at one table. You won’t find a more cross-functional, cross-disciplined company / team to work with than Fifth Season!

Q: What differentiates Fifth Season from other indoor farms in the marketplace today?

Namely, we are the only vertical farm that has positive unit economics with just one 60K square foot facility. We provide a superior return on capital compared to leafy greens greenhouses, because we designed a smart manufacturing system, not a farm. This has given us a stepwise function change in key cost drivers. Among them, labor and density (therefore, lbs to fixed costs ratio).

This is all driven by our truly automated end-to-end platform. Every single step of the process, not just a couple of areas, is automated with strategically embedded human-robot interaction. More importantly, the entire process is run by our proprietary software brain and pathfinding algorithm. As a result, all of that automation – all electromechanical systems – sits within our software skin and in-house built firmware, which is truly industry 5.0

We’ve been able to do this because we approached this problem differently. Instead of moving farming from outdoors to indoors, or simply sprinkling on technology to part of a growing platform, we rolled up our sleeves and built an entirely unique system from the ground up – all with just a fraction of the time and a fraction of the capital compared to the rest of the space.

To-date, Indoor Ag has unfortunately been held back by overhyped, false promises and facade tech demonstrations. It’s time to put that behind us and finally usher in the Indoor Ag future we’ve all been waiting for – with Fifth Season technology.

6- What’s next for Fifth Season?

Fifth Season is extremely excited to be expanding both our products and our geographic presence. We’re taking the impact we’re making in Braddock and Pittsburgh-wide to other communities across the country

To learn more about Fifth Season, check out video below and visit www.fifthseasonfresh.com

Hoogendoorn New Partner Company of Dutch Greenhouse Delta (DGD)

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on February 12, 2021. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News.

Indoor Ag-Con Exhibitor News Hoogendoorn – Dutch Greenhouse Delta (DGD) is proud to welcome four new partner companies this year. “The arrival of Hoogendoorn Growth Management, Signify, Logiqs and Koppert Biological Systems, signifies the addition of an enormous wealth of knowledge and experience in all horticultural disciplines”, says Eric Egberts, CEO of Dutch Greenhouse Delta. In total, DGD is working with no fewer than 25 partners, with whom they are collectively offering a horticultural eco-system through Fork2Farm, consisting of science, entrepreneurship, education and government.

Tackle challenges together

“We can see that globalisation is happening very quickly but, at the same time, we’re seeing countries closing their borders. The demand for healthy, fresh, sustainable and locally-grown food is therefore rising dramatically. The scale and complexity of projects is also increasing. If we tackle these challenges collectively, we can make a substantial contribution to the supply of sufficient healthy, affordable and safe food which is produced sustainably and locally. Hoogendoorn Growth Management, Signify, Logiqs and Koppert Biological Systems are a great complement in contributing to the realization of this ambition.” Eric Egberts, states.

Hoogendoorn; contributing to a sustainable approach

Hoogendoorn Growth Management develops the most advanced process computers, which contribute to an efficient and sustainable approach to water, climate and energy. Angela Barendregt, Project Manager of International Business & Strategy at Hoogendoorn explains why they decided to become a partner of DGD: “In a world where change is a constant factor, horticultural companies must innovate at lightning speed. Chain cooperation should be seen as the key to accelerating the development of new technologies in this world. Dutch Greenhouse Delta can be regarded as a pathfinder for many growers in the world who are looking for innovative and sustainable technological solutions.”

Dutch Greenhouse Delta

Dutch Greenhouse Delta was founded in September 2017 to market Dutch greenhouse horticulture worldwide as a cluster. They do this by offering the entire horticultural eco-system of Fork2Farm, consisting of science, enterprise, education and government, in a number of focus regions. The foundation focuses on large-scale complex projects and issues relating to food and horticulture in expanding mega-cities. At the present time, 25 greenhouse horticulture companies and the branch organisations AVAG and LTO Glaskracht are affiliated with their members, all of whom are contributing to the realisation of the foundation’s activities.

MFG Trays For Insect Rearing

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on February 12, 2021. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News.

MFG Tray Indoor Ag-Con Exhibitor Update — The possibilities are endless with insect rearing, such as mealworm farming. Insects such as mealworms are packed with important nutrients and proteins and are much more environmentally sustainable than other sources. It has become very popular – most used as an alternative animal feed, for wildlife rescues, used in the aquaponics industry and even in human consumption as meals.

From home-based farms to commercial production, entomologists at insect rearing facilities all over the world have been using MFG Tray’s durable and dependable trays for over 40 years. MFG Tray has a variety of sizes of trays and containers that are utilized in all life cycles of mealworm and insect farming. MFG trays feature stackable, interlocking designs with drop ends and/or sides to increases air circulation which allows for quicker cooling and growing of the eggs, larva, and pupae.

They are commonly used stacked consecutively with other MFG trays or on an MFG custom dolly for transportation. The trays are constructed of fiberglass composite material and are produced to last in severe and heavy-duty industrial environments yielding a high return on investment. We have seen trays in service for over 15 years in many applications. Trust MFG trays and containers for your farming needs. Customers are encouraged to contact MFG Tray to discuss any unique handling and design requirements.

>> Does not absorb heat and resists development of hot spots as larvae bundle together and move around more
>> Corrosion resistant to high acidic diet and the corresponding waste produced
>> Easily steam cleaned and sterilized
>> Dimensionally consistent – ideal for machine integration and robotic applications
>> Drop ends and/or sides increases air circulation
>> Conforms to FDA Regulation Title 21 CFR 177.2420
>> Interlock stacking increases drying room efficiency
>> Temperature range continuous -60° to 250° F (-51° to 121° C)
>> Won’t bend, dent or deflect under heavy loads
>> Customized options and heavy-duty dollies available

Case Study:Percival Scientific and Iowa State University Collaborate on The Effects of Climate Change on Plant Growth

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on February 12, 2021. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News.

Percival Scientific Case Study: When researchers from the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University asked Percival Scientific to collaborate on a first-of-its-kind research facility with customized chambers that could be accessed by a robotic rover, the Percival engineering team jumped at the chance.

The multidisciplinary project, called Enviratron, was initially funded by the National Science Foundation and led by Dr. Stephen Howell, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Plant Sciences Institute. He is also former Director of the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C.

“It has been a wonderful collaboration,” says Howell. “We have worked very closely with the engineers at Percival. They have been very interested in a project that had some very unique challenges, and we have helped each other through it.”

Testing Plants Against Climate Change

“What we are really trying to do is test various plants, selected for certain traits, for their ability to respond to different environmental conditions,” explains Howell.

The project focuses on staple crops such as corn, soybeans and rice, as well as bioenergy crops like switch grass, to identify plant genotypes most able to withstand climate changes. “This is a parameter on which no research has been done thus far,” he adds.

The Obstacles of Climate-Based Research

Up to this point, testing the impact of climate changes on plants typically has been done by planting them in various locations with different environmental conditions and then making observations and taking measurements. This approach is fraught with shortcomings, including the inability to isolate the plants from multiple influences other than climate as well as the inability to manipulate the climate to reflect anticipated future conditions.

Current research facilities using plant growth chambers can only provide one climatic model at a time. This limitation reduces the scope of any study to a single variable: the genotype of the plants. And while current facilities provide consistent environmental conditions as compared to outdoors, they still require removing and transporting plants for sampling, which exposes them to uncontrollable elements that introduce uncertainty in the research results.

Chambers Designed for Automated Testing

Howell and his team worked with Percival to solve these challenges by creating a fully isolated research facility. It contains eight independent chambers which are accessed by a robotic rover that samples and tests plants within the chambers without altering or contaminating the environment. It’s the first facility to conduct automated phenotyping of plants under a variety of environmental conditions in a single experiment.

The rover, which was developed with the help of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, is fully automated, allowing 24-hour research testing using a holographic camera, hyper-spectral sensor, fluorescence detector and a Raman scattering spectrometer. The rover collects precise location-specific data, resulting in improved sampling strategies and data quality. “The mountains of high-quality data coming out of this project will be staggering,” says Howell, when comparing the accuracy, consistency and productive time of automated testing to that of lab technicians.

Percival specially designed the chambers to accommodate the rover, which enters the chamber through an airlock. After the environment has been equilibrated between the airlock and the chamber, a divider raises to allow the robot access to the plants.

These are not your standard chambers,” says Steve Whitham, Iowa State University Professor, Plant Pathology and Microbiology. “They’ve been designed from the ground up specifically for the Enviratron project.

Percival Takes On the Challenges

“Here at the Roy J Carver Co-Laboratory we have a number of Percival chambers that we have had for many years. They have proven to be very reliable, so we were very confident about working with Percival on this project,” explains Howell, echoing the opinion of universities and colleges around the country. He adds that the opportunity to work with an Iowa-based company was a plus as well.

“Designing chambers to be accessible via a robot was just the beginning of the challenges presented to Percival when we began the project,” said Henry Imberti, Senior VP of Engineering for Percival Scientific.

This project necessitated the design of new chamber features, such as an actuated, sliding vestibule door. Not only did the door need to accommodate the unique size of the rover, but it also needed to be remotely actuated through the chamber’s central control system.

Additionally, the door opening required a smooth threshold to accommodate the specialized wheel system on the rover while maintaining an adequate seal when closed to ensure environmental conditions inside the experiment space remained undisturbed.

Another aspect requiring significant development was the optimization of the vestibule environment. The main objective was to retain environmental conditions inside the chamber per specifications throughout all operating scenarios.

A secondary goal was to minimize system complexity for various reasons, including initial cost, energy efficiency and ease of maintenance. In the end, Percival was able to develop and deploy a design to satisfy both of these criteria.

Other design challenges included tight control of temperature, humidity, CO2, photo period, light irradiance, light quality, air movement and water potential in the soil. The chambers also had to accommodate a variety of crops such as maize, soybeans, tobacco, rice, switch grass and low light species. Finally, Percival needed to keep the design costs within budget.

The Specifications

Percival was able to deliver on the design requirementsand then some. Design features included:

Growth Area 21.5 ft² (2.0 m²)
Exterior Dimensions

Width 106̎ (269 cm)

Depth 84̎ (213 cm)

Height 138̎ (350 cm)

Maximum Growing Height 106̎ (269 cm)
Light Intensity 1720 μmoles/m²/sec at 36̎ (91 cm)

from the lamps

Temperature Range (Lights on @ 100%) 10°C to 44°C
% Relative Humidity Control Range

40% to 80% from 15°C to 30°C (Lights on @ 100%)

CO2 Control Range 100 to 5000 μmol/mol

An Air-flow design optimized through the use of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software. The design bypass system reduces unwanted leaf movement produced by air currents while the rover is attempting to take measurements.

Electrically-actuated lamp canopy that adjusts the height of the lamp bank to be closer to the plant canopy for other future light sources such as LEDs.

DALI dimmable lighting allows each ceramic metal halide bulb to dim individually, enhancing the chamber’s ability to produce highly uniform light intensity across the growing space.

Unique software applications include Percival’s propriety WeatherEze, which gives Howell and his team the ability to program the chamber environment to simulate growing conditions from all over the world.

Percival’s IntellusUltra Control System provides a touchscreen interface as well local and remote data collection and cloud storage.

The Global Impact

While melting polar ice caps and rising tides in South Beach are the go-to shots for photojournalists covering climate change, a much less obvious, but no less serious, change is occurring in the breadbaskets of the world.

Climate change threatens the parameters of regional growing seasons. Iowa State University and Percival Scientific support urgentlyneeded research to identify those genetic traits amongour food crops that will withstand the gradual changes in environment that are already occurring. Enviratron will permit scientists to incrementally alter critical variables in keeping with projected changes. It will help prepare the agricultural community, from the research scientist to the farmer in the field, to continue providing the products that sustain the world’s population, a task of the highest priority.

For more information, please visit www.percival-scientific.com, call 1.800.695.2743 or email info@percival-scientific.com.