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Indoor Ag-Con To Change Dates, Location For 2021

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on February 9, 2021. Posted in Blog, Press Releases.

Co-Location With The NGA Show Shifts to 2022 Edition

(FEBRUARY 8, 2021 ) — With safety in mind, the Indoor Ag-Con management team has made the decision to push the dates for its previously announced May 16-18, 2021 agriculture trade show and conference for the indoor and vertical farming industry to the third quarter of 2021. The decision is in keeping with The NGA Show | National Grocers Association decision to shift its show — which was previously scheduled to run concurrently at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas — to the third quarter as well. While venue and space limitations in the Las Vegas marketplace prevent co-location for this later time frame in 2021, the two events will come together in 2022.

The Indoor Ag-Con team is currently gathering feedback from its board and monitoring leading sources of health information to secure a fall date pattern and convenient venue that ensures a safe, cost-effective show. The new 2021 dates and location will be announced shortly.

“The safety of the indoor ag community is our top priority,” explains Brian Sullivan, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con. “By moving our event to a Fall 2021 pattern, we’ll be better aligned with the expanding Covid-19 vaccine rollout and growing confidence levels in travel and attendance at live events. And, looking ahead to 2022, we’re excited to renew our plans to co-locate with The NGA Show and give our audience the incredible opportunity to connect with supermarket and food retail industry professionals.”

“We were very much looking forward to co-locating The NGA Show with Indoor Ag-Con this year and celebrating the synergy between the two events,” said Courtney Muller, chief corporate development and strategy officer with Clarion Events North America. “Delivering a cross-over resource to help retailers partner with growers in a new way to address supply chain challenges, transparency in food sourcing, and meeting consumer demand will only grow in value until we are able to co-locate the two events in 2022.”

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. The NGA Show 2021 edition will be held September 19-21 at Paris Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, NV.

Indoor Ag-Con, launched in 2013, provides exhibitors and attendees with the latest technology and business strategies for growing crops in indoor systems, using hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponics techniques, bringing together growers, investors, chefs, produce buyers, academics, policymakers, industry suppliers and advocates. The 2021 edition will feature an expanded exhibit floor, new networking opportunities and some of the industry’s top innovators and business leaders leading keynote addresses and participating in a range of panel discussions.

About Indoor Ag-Con
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con has emerged as the premier trade event for vertical farming | indoor agriculture, 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, covering 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.

About The National Grocers Association
The National Grocers Association (NGA) is the national trade association representing the retail and wholesale grocers that comprise the independent sector of the food distribution industry. An independent retailer is a privately owned or controlled food retail company operating a variety of formats. The independent grocery sector is accountable for close to one percent of the nation’s overall economy and is responsible for generating $131 billion in sales, 944,000 jobs, $30 billion in wages and $27 billion in taxes. NGA members include retail and wholesale grocers, state grocers’ associations, as well as manufacturers and service suppliers. For more information about NGA, visit www.nationalgrocers.org.

About Clarion Events
Clarion Events (www.US.ClarionEvents.com) produces 37 events across 13 sectors of both trade and consumer events. Clarion Events, which is the U.S. division of Clarion Events UK and backed by The Blackstone Group, has become one of the fastest-growing event companies in the U.S. with aggressive growth through both acquisition and launch. Clarion acquired PennWell in early 2018, bringing four Tradeshow 200 events into the U.S. portfolio and supercharging the already rapid growth. Clarion Events has offices in Trumbull, Conn.; Kennesaw, Ga.; Boca Raton, Fla.; Tacoma, Wash., and Fairlawn, N.J. www.US.ClarionEvents.com

Computer Vision Brings Clarity To Growers | Q & A With iUNU CEO Adam Greenberg

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on January 18, 2021. Posted in Blog.

Adam Greenberg founded iUNU (pronounced “you knew”) in 2013 to revolutionize the greenhouse industry by using machine vision technology. In less than eight years, he is well on the way.

The Seattle-based company’s LUNA AI platform uses computer vision to monitor crop growth. LUNA delivers a system of mobile and fixed cameras with high-definition imaging and environmental sensors that measure and record everything down to the real-time growth rate of each plant. The software combines computer vision and machine learning technologies to continuously build detailed models of individual plants, unique among millions, throughout the day. What’s more, LUNA helps growers manage this information so they can be more productive and efficient – automating tracking, helping scout, and refining forecasts & planning.

The industry has taken notice. iUNU & Adam have been recognized with a Medal of Excellence nomination from Greenhouse Grower, best new indoor growing technology from the United Fresh Produce Association, and Adam was recently named to GPN’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2020. Adam will also be joining our Indoor Ag-Conversations CEO panel this week (see story below), “AI & Robotics: What’s Economically Viable and Feasible For Indoor Farms Today.” Ahead of this program, Indoor Ag-Con had a chance to talk to Adam about his growing business and plans for the future.

Q. What makes LUNA different from other greenhouse | indoor grower AI platforms on the market today?

We play in that nebulous gray zone connecting between ERP companies and control systems, but we’re not competing with any of them. Everyone has their control system vendor. We’re striving to be the trusted machine vision vendor. To us, it’s less about competition and marketing and more about how and where we fit in when it comes to helping customers solve problems and drive value.

Growers spend a lot of time keeping track of plants with manual data collection – walking up and down rows, noting issues on an ipad, and putting flags down to mark problems. Given the scale some growers must deal with, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks. Forecasting presents an even bigger challenge that oftentimes ends up as a combination of best guesses and constant fine-tuning. During planning, issuing a single change order can take up to a week as the team works though that excel document. We aim to solve all these challenges with the clarity that comes from a quantifiable, data-driven process that takes the guesswork out of growing.

Q. Looking at our Indoor Ag-Con audience — which includes greenhouse growers as well as indoor |vertical farm growers — does your technology meet the needs for all these environments?

Our platform is being used by growers in all indoor categories, including vertical, greenhouses and grow rooms. In fact, vertical farm inquiries are our number one area of interest – from large to small operations – followed by interest from commercial scale greenhouses. The issue is that vertical farming is, perhaps, one of the most NDA-covered categories – to the point that operations could be located right next door to one another and not even know it. As a result, we are not able to share examples of some of our clients and successes in this space.

Q. Cost is a key component to any indoor farm. Please share some idea of the cost spectrum when one considers the implementation of any AI technology system within an indoor farm.

LUNA is a SaaS model where clients make recurring payments. As the camera vision captures images while riding around the greenhouse/indoor farm, it sends those images to LUNA’s data collection point where it is translated onto an app the grower can access on a cellphone or laptop. There are multiple pixels per millimeter and each photo and every single pixel is collected and analyzed. That leads to recurring costs and ongoing analysis. The more passes the camera makes, the costs are adjusted accordingly. Each customer — and each order iUNU gets from these customers — is unique. The iUNU team essentially acts as a semi-autonomous horticultural consultant as we recommend the number of passes needed to meet a grower’s goals and needs. This can range from a single daily pass for a grower seeking to find problems with chlorosis or mildew up to 8-10 passes a day for that grower who is a voracious consumer of data.

When it comes to budgeting for AI technology, I think we can learn from other industries. We follow the process of manufacturing where between 4-5% of industrial process automation goes to software, which has gone up to 7-8% today. I encourage clients to dedicate 4-7% of their budget to those things that will help improve processes and scale up.

Q: What’s Next for iUNU

I’d say there are three key areas of focus for us:

—Helping scale the industry to meet demand: We want to offer tools that help growers do more with less. In North America, for example, the greenhouse fruit and vegetable market is growing more than 20 percent annually. As greenhouses expand, they face labor shortages and challenges. We are focusing on ways to make indoor growing operations more profitable and efficient.

–API: Companies that cannot work with other companies will be replaced by other companies. I think any company that does not offer API (Application Programming Interface) will lose. We must connect all growing and operating tools together for the benefit of the grower.

–Food Safety: We want to significantly contribute to the continued push for food safety through our data collection. Food safety has become increasingly important to both consumers and the FDA.

Q. When it comes to AI, what is keeping you up at night?

I think there’s a general misconception when it comes to AI. It’s really nothing more than a buzz word for statistical analysis. People do not always understand this and think AI is something to be afraid of. When companies say they sell AI, it’s like saying ‘I’m selling the Cloud’ or ‘I’m selling API.’ In reality, AI is simply commoditized statistical learning. There is just so much marketing noise in the sector that it’s often hard to find the signal. Hopefully within 5 years the signal will become more pronounced so people can really hear it and understand it.
There is a lot of opacity in the sector today. The focus needs to be on companies that drive value and truly focus on the customer needs. Show value to the industry, your happy customers will handle the rest for you.

To learn more about iUNU and LUNA, visit www.iunu.com

Indoor Ag-Con, NGA Show May 2021 Co-Location Taps Into Synergies Between Growers & Grocers

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on January 18, 2021. Posted in Blog.

The NGA Show, the leading trade show and conference for independent grocers, and Indoor Ag-Con, the premier agriculture conference and trade show for the indoor and vertical farming industry, will co-locate in 2021. The combined event will be held May 16-18, 2021 at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, NV. The January 2021 cover story from Supermarket Perimeter , titled “Redefining Locally Grown Produce With Urban Farming”, shines a spotlight on the synergies and new business opportunities emerging between grocers and indoor growers. Written by the publication’s managing editor Andy Nelson, the article highlights a number of our industry leaders, including Freight Farms, Gotham Greens and Infarm and starts out:

Supermarket Perimeter January 2021 Cover Story:

“Urban farms check a variety of boxes for today’s consumers: locally grown, sustainable, low carbon footprint — not to mention fresh, healthy and tasty.

And the COVID pandemic has only made them more attractive, as transportation and logistics created huge headaches for retailers, shippers and everyone in between along the supply chain. Kroger, Whole Foods Market and Safeway are just a few of the big-name US retailers to get on board.

Minneapolis-based North Market installed a Freight Farms hydroponic vertical container farm in the summer of 2020, and the retailer followed that up in December with the decision to power its farm with solar panels connected to its roof.

“Now we have a repurposed shipping container, growing the equivalent of two acres of outdoor growing space, using only five gallons of water a day, entirely powered by solar panels, selling into a grocery store located 50 feet away,” said Ethan Neal, food systems manager for Pillsbury United Communities, the nonprofit organization that funded the farm. “It’s creating some of the highest quality produce available in a neighborhood that was considered one of the largest food deserts in the state of Minnesota.”

Read the full article from Supermarket Perimeter, visit the publication website here.

Indoor Ag-Con Announces Inaugural Advisory Board

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on December 15, 2020. Posted in Blog.

Committee of Industry Leaders From Indoor Agriculture, Grocery, Specialty Food, Commercial Real Estate, Hemp, Other Sectors To Provide Guidance, Insights To Help Shape 2021 Exposition & Conference

LAS VEGAS (December 15, 2020) – Indoor Ag-Con, the premier trade show for the indoor agriculture | vertical farming industry, announces the formation of its inaugural advisory board. Bringing together industry leaders from across the agriculture supply chain – from indoor farming to grocers to commercial real estate – the new board will advise and help shape the educational conference and exhibition floor offerings of the 2021 edition of Indoor Ag-Con and other new initiatives planned for the coming year.

“As we look at the challenges and opportunities the Covid-19 crisis has brought to live events and indoor agriculture, it’s more important than ever that we work with a group of recognized thought leaders in the industry to act as our Advisory Board to guide us in the right direction as we plan our 2021 event,” said Nancy Hallberg, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con.

“Taking this a step further, we wanted our board to include leaders from key industry sectors that drive and intersect with indoor agriculture, like grocery business, commercial real estate, alternative crops and others,” adds Brian Sullivan, co-owner, Indoor Ag-Con. “For 2021, successful indoor agriculture business development strategies will be the primary focus for our event. The insights and intelligence we’ll gather from these successful leaders of indoor agriculture, as well as a number of the sectors our attendees and exhibitors hope to do business with, will go a long way in shaping meaningful content, networking and exhibition opportunities.”

2021 Indoor Ag-Con Advisory Board

Samuel Bertram, CEO | Co-Founder, OnePointOne, Inc.
Julie Emmett, Senior Director, Retail Partnerships Plant Based Foods Association
Greg Ferrara, President & CEO, National Grocers Association
Henry Gordon Smith, CEO & Managing Director, Agritecture
Marni Karlin, Executive Director, CEA Food Safety Coalition
Tracy Lee, Division Lead, CEA Department, Sakata Seed Company
Jody McGinness, Executive Director, Hemp Industries Association
Tim McGuinness, Sterling Advisory Group & Former SVP, International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Chris Nemchek, President , Coach Global Solutions & Former SVP, Specialty Food Association
Matt Roy, Vice President of Business Development Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), Tanimura & Antle
E. Austin Webb, CEO & Co-Founder, Fifth Season, Powered By Robotany
Nona Yehia, CEO | Co-Founder ,Vertical Harvest

For 2021, Indoor Ag-Con will co-locate with The National Grocers Association (NGA) Show, the leading trade show and conference for independent grocers. The combined event will be held at the new Caesars Forum Convention Center in Las Vegas from May 16-18, 2021. The NGA Show and Indoor Ag-Con visitors will have access to all exhibits, and discounts will be available for cross-over educational event attendance.

ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON

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

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More Choices | New Jiffy Essence and Jiffy Finesse Growbags

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on December 14, 2020. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News.

Jiffy has doubled its range of growbags. Now it’s easier than ever for plant propagators and growers to meet their crops’ needs and boost yields.

New Jiffy Essence Growbags: the perfect budget choice

Jiffy Essence is our new standard range of growbags. Filled with Jiffy’s high-quality peat-free substrate, Jiffy Essence Growbags are delivered ready to be rinsed and treated by the end user. That way propagators and growers can save costs and meet the exact needs of their crops. Recommended for tomatoes, cut flowers, hemp, etc. Jiffy Essence Growbags are OMRI-listed, ISO-certified, and are suitable for USDA-certified organic produce.

Jiffy’s premium growbags now called Jiffy Finesse

Jiffy Essence is the little brother to our premium range, the famous growbags Jiffy has produced for years. The premium range is now called Jiffy Finesse, to make it easier to differentiate. Jiffy Finesse Growbags are ready-to-use: no rinsing or treatment is required. Best for sweet peppers, soft fruit cultivated in high-tech growing systems, and other demanding crops.

Note: All Jiffy Essence and Jiffy Finesse Growbags are made from exactly the same raw materials: 100% high-quality coir made from the pithy tissues of the coconut husk. Our coir is a renewable, eco-friendly substrate with no disposability issues.

So what’s changed exactly?

Jiffy Essence is our brand-new range. Jiffy Essence Growbags contain our high-quality coir, but this has not been treated. The end-user must rinse it and may choose to treat it before use.

When it comes to Jiffy Finesse, nothing has changed – except the name. Our high-end, RHP certified growbags are now called Jiffy Finesse. They are guaranteed low in sodium and chloride thanks to our RHP-certified treatment process. Their optimized EC levels ensure the best possible yields.

Netled’s Vera® Vertical Farming Technology Introduced In S Groups’ Prisma Hypermarkets

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on December 14, 2020. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News.

Netled has entered into a significant long-term cooperation agreement with Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa, a regional operator of the largest commercial chain in Finland, the S Group. Prisma Pirkkala, which opened at the beginning of December, is the first hypermarket in Finland to launch Netled’s new Vera® Instore Cabinet inside its new store.

Netled’s Vera® produced herbs and salads will be sold in Prisma hypermarkets in the Pirkanmaa area. Leafy greens are produced within the store in Vera® Instore Premium Growing Cabinets. Herbs are harvested directly off the shelf. The growing conditions are automated and controlled remotely.

S Group is a customer-owned Finnish network of companies in the retail and service sectors, with more than 1 800 outlets in Finland. S Group’s main branches are grocery, consumer goods, hotels and restaurants, fuel trade and bank & services. As a major operator, the S Group’s main focus is also sustainable food, and the new ways it can offer healthy and responsibly produced food for its customers.

”With this newly formed collaboration, we can offer consumers fresh, ultra-locally produced products and at the same time introduce them to vertical farming as a method of ecological, urban farming.” – Ville Jylhä, COO of Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa.

”We have developed our range of offering for different segments of vertical farming. Instore growing systems is interesting and growing segment and as technology provider we have a lot to offer for it. Co-operation with Pirkanmaan Osuuskauppa proves the viability of instore concept also for our other customers and partners globally.” – Niko Kivioja, CEO of Netled.

The Benefits Of Keeping Greenhouse Technology Simple

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on December 14, 2020. Posted in Blog.

Sourced From Greenhouse Grower Magazine

Greenhouse equipment should be simple for the end user. This was the topic of a blog post written earlier this year by Chris Higgins, General Manager and Co-owner of HortAmericas, a wholesale supply company. The main message offered by Higgins was that the most successful products should be easy to use, learn, operate, and maintain. Why does this matter? It affects how much money a grower can make, as smart purchases can lead a better return on investment (ROI).

So how can this relatively simple concept carry out across the controlled-environment industry? Higgins tried to tackle this topic with three market experts during a webinar in October that was part of the Indoor Ag-Conversations webinar series. Joining Higgins were Nadia Sabeh, President and Founder of Dr. Greenhouse, an HVAC design company; Paul Brentlinger, President of Crop King Inc., a greenhouse manufacturer and hydroponic supply company; and Isaac Van Geest of Zwart Systems, an irrigation company.

Together, the group offered several thoughts on how growers can make sure they are being smart in their equipment investments. Here are some of their top insights.

Every greenhouse location has its own unique properties, such as sunlight, temperature, and humidity, Sabeh says. Putting those together adds a level of complexity to any design process, but the end result will hopefully optimize the environment for the crop.
“One thing we see is not a lot of focus on how systems interact with each other, like air flow and how it’s affected by fans, evaporative cooling pads, or screens,” Sabeh says. “Growers need to look at the entire system as a whole, not piece by piece.”
Plan ahead before working with your supplier, Van Geest says.
“It’s important to know everything you need from the beginning,” Van Geest says. “We can then take all those things into account when planning a design.”
There’s so much new technology out there that it might create headaches when you try to sort it all out. The problem, Brentlinger says, is the equipment is not always as simple as it seems.
“Technology get better every year, and you can always upgrade, but the design needs to stay simple,” Brentlinger says. “Our focus is on designing for simplicity to maximize return on investment. If we can’t show the ROI, we won’t suggest the system.”
Simplicity doesn’t change, even if the equipment does, according to Van Geest.
“We have updated our boom controllers several times, but they still need to work in a simple way,” Van Geest says.
In too many cases, after the supplier leaves the job site, the grower is left to figure out how to fine tune the system, Sabeh says. The problem is that growers are not often prepared to operate on that level of complexity to maintain and monitor new high-tech equipment.
“My concern with very advanced technology is that growers will take for granted the plants they have and the system they have,” Sabeh says. “They think they don’t need to be engaged. I still want growers to walk through the crop and scout, no matter how simple or complex their system is. You have to know how the plant responds to the system and vice versa.”
Simple does not mean sub-par; it means a well-engineered product that is easy to operate, Higgins says.
“Simple should be a compliment to the engineer, as it implies that the product is designed well.”

Article by Brian D. Sparks, senior editor of Greenhouse Grower and GreenhouseGrower.com. See all author stories here.

Autogrow and Agritecture Consulting Release 2nd Annual CEA Census Report

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on December 14, 2020. Posted in Blog.

Autogrow and Agritecture Consulting have released the 2nd Annual CEA Census Report highlighting positive signs of growth despite the global pandemic.

Data captured over an 8-week period show 95% of growers have an optimistic outlook for the next 12 months with all types of operations including greenhouses, shipping containers, tunnel and vertical farms showing profitability.

“The optimism reflects what we have seen across many areas of the industry including increased technology adoption and increased consumer expenditure on fresh produce. And despite the challenges we’re seeing an overwhelming number of new entrants into the market,” says Autogrow CEO Darryn Keiller.

“What has not changed is the high percentage of new growers, almost 50%, that have no experience in agriculture before starting their business. That lack of experience has an impact on new technology solutions created and the need for more education to be available to support them. It also shows a real desire to make a difference considering their willingness to start during a pandemic.”

Respondents from 58 countries shared their views on their farming practices, financials, and the impact of COVID-19. The report also gave insight on three key growth regions around the world – India, the UK and MENA (Middle East & North Africa).

“The results of the 2020 Census confirmed our hypothesis that the UK, India, and MENA regions are the emerging hotspots for CEA, albeit for different reasons. In the UK, Brexit is driving investment towards CEA to combat supply chain risks, while in India rising population and increased premium consumer demand for clean food are driving CEA. In the MENA region, government responses to COVID-19 have accelerated policies and incentives for developing scalable CEA solutions,” explains Agritecture Consulting Founder Henry Gordon-Smith.

“All of these regions present great opportunities for the CEA industry to grow and make a meaningful impact on their respective local conditions.”

Other takeaways from the Census:

· CEA businesses showing optimism and resilience despite the COVID hurdles

· 88% of growers surveyed are below age 50

· 29% of respondents receive funding from multiple sources

GET 2020 CEA GLOBAL CENSUS REPORT

About Autogrow

Autogrow leverages the power of technology, data science and plant biology to provide indoor growers affordable, accessible and easy-to-use innovation – 24/7, anywhere in the world.

Our solutions support growers and resellers in over 40 countries producing over 100 different crop types.

We are the experts in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and continue to stay ahead of a rapidly evolving landscape.

About Agritecture Consulting

Agritecture Consulting provides a comprehensive approach to CEA project development.

In operation since 2014, Agritecture has helped more than eighty organizations determine the feasibility of their ideas, validate their business strategies, recruit talent for their projects, and manage operational challenges.

Our job is to jumpstart your knowledge of CEA, help you navigate barriers to entry, make industry connections, and mitigate risk. Our consulting services are backed by several years of operations data and a team of experienced growers, engineers, and sustainability managers.

Talking AI With Samuel Bertram, CEO & Co-Founder, OnePointOne

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on November 17, 2020. Posted in Blog.

OpenPointOne Bertram Brothers Indoor Ag-Con Blog — L-R: OnePointOne Co-Founders Samuel and John Bertram

What’s in a name? For brothers Samuel and John Bertram, it signifies nothing short of a desire to improve the human condition by revolutionizing agriculture through automated indoor farming. Their company, OnePointOne, is on a mission to nourish and heal humanity by unleashing the power of plants.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, the duo came to the US in the 2010s on collegiate tennis scholarships. Over the years, they honed skills off the court– including electrical, mechanical and robotic engineering — and began searching for business opportunities that could affect large-scale, positive changes on human health, the environment and agriculture.

Galvanized by the fact that 1.1 billion people began this millennium malnourished, Samuel and John co-founded OnePointOne, Inc. in 2017. Serving as a constant reminder of what they’re aiming to solve, aptly named OnePointOne has developed an automated, aeroponic, indoor farming system to grow fresh food in urban areas around the world. OnePointOne’s proprietary technology now powers Willo, the company’s new consumer brand, which launched earlier this year. Willo’s Farming as a Service (FaaS) subscription model is designed to reconnect people and families directly to the farm and the initial response has exceeded all expectations.

In this month’s Indoor Ag-Con Q & A, OnePointOne Co-Founder & CEO Samuel Bertram shares his thoughts on opportunities for the vertical farming industry, emerging AI innovations and plans for his own growing business.

When one thinks of AI for indoor agriculture, what are some of the key areas of need that indoor growers have today?

AI refers to the developing ability for machines to replicate human decision-making and behavior. That said, areas for useful AI development include:

Plant Health – Using AI to determine the health status of any plant by comparing large—predominantly imagery—data sets against in-situ imagery: disease detection, photosynthetic health, etc.
System Monitoring – Beyond direct sensor readings, large data sets of factors like CO2, fluid flow, fluid pressure, temperature, and others, can be used to determine more anomalous malfunctions of the system
System Optimization – Large data sets describing the life experience of the plant, i.e. light levels, temperatures, and humidity, can be used to improve the performance of the system to any cultivar.

By taking in large quantities of data from a variety of environmental, system and plant sensors, AI techniques can be applied to optimize performance of the vertical farming system and assist growers in their role as farm operator. While traditional sensor readings like temperature, humidity and flow rate are vital, plant imagery is a requirement to unlock AI’s power in vertical farming. Without high-frequency, high-resolution, hyper-spectral imagery of all plants in vertical farm production, the vertical farming industry will never reach its full potential. OnePointOne has focused heavily on collecting, analyzing and providing that imagery data to our growers.

It’s important to note that while AI can handle far more data than a human being, humans are still superior when it comes to complex decision-making in most cases. Therefore, AI should be focused on deriving learnings from massive data sets, informing growers of those learnings, and unlocking the potential of the system and the grower.

Cost is a critical component to any indoor farm operating, hopefully, profitably. Please share some idea of the cost spectrum (low to high) when one considers the implementation of ANY AI technology system within an indoor farm.

I would break this down as follows:

1. Labor is the highest operating expense cost inside of a vertical farm. Therefore, vertical farms must optimize their utilization of labor.
2. After automating processes like seeding, plant movement, and plant harvest/packaging, vertical farms must solve the problem of system and plant monitoring costs.
3. If system and plant monitoring become automated, high-skilled labor can be centralized.
4. Centralizing high-skilled labor dramatically improves the cost and scalability metrics of vertical farming.
5. Without high-frequency, high-resolution, hyper-spectral imagery of all plants within a production system, centralization of high-skilled labor cannot occur.
6. Without this significant improvement in labor utilization, vertical farms will continue to struggle for profitability.

The highest-impact application of AI in vertical farming is through the analysis of environmental, system and plant-imagery data-points and their corresponding impact on plant yield and quality.

Then, AI can “automatically” improve the quality and yield of biomass, while optimizing the use of resources, i.e., light, HVAC and irrigation.

Optimizing the usage of electrons for lighting, temperature and humidity control is the perfect job for AI. This will dramatically improve the economics of vertical farming over time.

You are a Bronco from the University of Santa Clara. How can higher education, top horticulture universities and R&D institutions help accelerate AI technology in indoor vertical farming?

I see three clear ways these institutions can help:

1. Cultivating high-quality minds that will push our industry forward
2. Conducting vast numbers of experiments to develop AI algorithms to detect optimal and suboptimal plant health (potentially high-throughput phenotyping, for example)
3. Licensing state-of-the-art vertical farming technology to standardize production in pursuit of standardizing data

Given OnePointOne’s location in the heart of the Silicon Valley, are you seeing any large tech firms getting involved with AI for indoor horticulture? If so, who?

Absolutely. Two come immediately to mind:

Google is diving deep into imagery-data analysis for outdoor farms. It is only a matter of time before they venture into the vertical farming space.

Amazon (AWS) has developed several teams and tools that can assist vertical farms in their storage and analysis of data.

What are some of the AI advancements OnePointOne is focused on now?

Imagery, imagery, imagery. Similar to Tesla, high-frequency, high-resolution, hyper-spectral imagery data sets from production and research farms will give OnePointOne a sustainable competitive advantage. Beyond real-time image analysis — like leaf-edge detection, discoloration detection and discontinuity detection, etc — large imagery data sets will drive system optimization unlike anything else. With enough imagery data, software models of plants can be created, then used in production settings to ensure optimal plant performance.

Above all else, OnePointOne is focused on plant-quality. Employing AI to our imagery data allows us to constantly improve the quality of our plants, while minimizing the required input resources.

Last, but certainly not least, let’s talk about this year’s launch of your consumer brand Willo. What was the rationale behind this subscription model and what type of response has it received?

For ten thousand years farming was local and provided a diverse range of nutrients for the community. Today, we have no idea where our food is coming from and we are losing the nourishment battle. Willo exists to reconnect us to the farm and ensure that we are nourished by the highest quality foods imaginable.

Willo’s mission is enabling personalized plant-based nutrition to optimize human and environmental health. We achieve this through Willo’s personalized farming service, which allows members to control their own farm plot and regain access to locally grown, high quality produce unlike ever before.

Within a matter of weeks of our launch, Willo sold out the first farm. We are now in the process of building a farm ten times larger to accommodate the building waitlist for our personalized farming service.

Visit the OnePointOne and Willo websites to learn more!

Sananbio Ark Climate-Controlled Mobile Farm

Written by Indoor Ag-Con on November 16, 2020. Posted in Blog, Exhibitor News.

tIndoor Ag-Con exhibitor SANANBIO, a leading vertical farming solution provider, announces the availability of its climate controlled mobile farm for growers globally – Sananbio Ark.

Indoor Ag-Con Exhibitor Sananbio Lalunches Sananbio Ark Mobile Farm — SANANBIO ARK HIGHLIGHTS

“3,300-4,400 lbs of cucumbers, 7,700 lbs of arugula, or 8,000 lbs of lettuce. These are the proven annual yields that we’re confident to announce,” said Zhan Zhuo, co-founder and CEO of SANANBIO. “We ‘produce’ turnkey farms and this one is mobile.”

The Sananbio Ark adapts to any climate thanks to its thermal insulation system. the system has a thermal conductivity below 0.024w/(m·K). One of the mobile farms operated as usual in a coldness of -40 degree Fahrenheit in northern China. This sustained local communities with local produce at a reduced carbon footprint. It is shocking to find that our food travels 1,500 miles on average before reaching our plate. In addition, the CO2 generated, and the nutrients lost during the transportation, can’t be good for the planet or human beings. That’s why local food is advocated.

“The ready-to-use farm is the solution we offer to regions where the environment is too harsh to support stable agricultural production,” said Zhan.

To streamline the farming experience, the designer simplifies the start-up procedures to a single plug-in motion. Simply power it up through a connector on the exterior and then even hydroponic beginners are set to grow. Moreover, growers can monitor and control farm metrics simply by moving fingertips on their phone.

“By simplifying modern agriculture, we offer more farming opportunities for kids and urban dwellers. We have a mobile farm deployed in a Malaysian suburb where kids from the neighborhood frequent the farm for hands-on hydroponic experience. It’s a perfect bonding time when families go there to pick their own salad ingredients. As a Photobiotech company, we’re nurturing a new generation of growers,” said Zhan.

For more info about the mobile farm, please visit www.sananbio.com/ark.

About SANANBIO

SANANBIO is a joint-venture by Sanan Optoelectronics, one of the world’s largest LED manufacturers, and the Institute of Botany of Chinese Academy of Sciences, a leading institute in plant science. Comprised of LED experts and plant scientists, SANANBIO is able to provide simple CEA solutions for growers globally. The RADIX, a Reddot award winner, has been widely endorsed by growers in more than twenty countries.