Please excuse the mess! We are working to get things in better shape so that you can more easily access all that agritecture has to offer.

technologywater:

Farming on one side, living on the other, and in a highrise, for density. WAY TO DESIGN A FUTURE!

Last week we had the pleasure of attending the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA) in Abu Dhabi. While there we met with Caleb Harper and Emma Feshbach who are working on the MIT CityFARM: an indoor vertical farming lab bound to change the way we gather and share data in the controlled environment agriculture industry.

At the MIT CityFARM, we’re rediscovering MIT’s roots and inventing the future of agriculture using cutting edge engineering, big data, and network connectivity. With a planet home to 9.6 billion people by 2050, our ability to grow food sustainably at scale will be essential to maintaining global prosperity.

MIT CityFARM

Here is an interview with Emma Feshbach held at the end of the GFIA conference. Emma is a junior at MIT studying mechanical engineering and one of the researchers at the CityFARM.

Henry: Thanks so much for meeting with us. Can you tell us how you first got interested in urban agriculture and hydroponics?

Emma: I actually grew up growing food in my backyard when I was living in the bay area. I was used to having fresh produce and loved interacting with plants. When I came to MIT I began realizing how limited the availability of fresh produce was. When you don’t have a warmer climate throughout the year, you realize just how limited access to fresh produce can be and what inputs are needed to transport food to feed people in the wintertime here. I began asking myself how we could grow better food closer to home?

H: How did you get involved with urban agriculture at MIT?

E: I heard about the work that Caleb was doing at the MIT Media Lab and was intrigued by the challenge of data-driven agriculture that he wants to solve. I liked that he came from a farming background and  was combining that traditional know-how with data and research. I am currently studying mechanical engineering and never thought that farming and engineering could collide in such a harmonious way. It seemed like a really exciting challenge to me! I saw a posting by Caleb recruiting UROPS (undergraduate research opportunities program) for the CityFARM project and was excited enough to apply for a research position there.

H: Nice. When did you start at the CityFARM?

E: I started back in September 2013 in what was an electrical closet part of the “Changing Places” lab which is where city car was developed and also where parametric modelling of cities is being done. The lab is all about understanding what the future of cities can be and the CityFARM is about what the future of farming in cities can be.

H: What is a normal day at the MIT CityFARM?

E: Definitely a lot of eating fresh plants! Currently we are growing kale, lettuces, and tomatoes. It is amazing to just come in and see them growing a little bit more every day.

H: What kinds of systems are you utilizing for your research?

E: Our current indoor farm has a raft-based hydroponic system and an aeroponic system. We are researching different types of artificial lighting that can be used, energy management, we also look at pump and dosing system for nutrients, control systems, and how can we use hybrid lighting systems (for example when integrating agriculture into facades). I am focusing more on the lighting challenge and how to mimic and optimize ambient light.

H: Tell us more about that and why your research matters. Why do we need to evolve beyond the indoor greenhouse lighting that exists now?

E: I think that its really interesting that the current lighting technology is moving towards trying to mimic natural light. What interests me is how we can move even beyond that and achieve levels of lighting for plants that can help them achieve their optimal production rate beyond what they experience outside. I am interested in discovering what is unknown about how plants absorb light and how to optimize that.

H: So you believe there might be something more optimal than natural sunlight?

E: That is one of my questions. I don’t know yet but that is what I would like to find out.

H: Tell us about your work on PAR sensors and why it matters?

E:PAR stands for photosynthetically active radiation. Essentially, we are using PAR, or Quantum sensors, to conduct a spectral analysis across our various grow beds so that we can understand their respective plant growth and correlate that with light absorption. These sensors help us understand how plants are absorbing light and some insight in how to optimize that.

H: How much does one of these sensors usually cost?

E: With the data monitoring they can be about $2,000 and I am trying to develop one for under $50. It has been done before but hasn’t been offered on the market wide-scale. I plan to develop this and package it so that more growers can understand how to optimize their light usage in regards to indoor agriculture. The reason we want to reduce the cost is because ideally you would want to distribute these sensors across grow beds and not have to track each data point manually each time.

H: I love that! Considering the mix of plants that often exist in indoor grow systems having modular sensors throughout would help a lot of growers. Tell us about the Open Agriculture Initiative.

E: The Open Agriculture Initiative is a plan by MIT CityFARM to share valuable data on optimizing food production through the cloud. When I came into this industry I thought: well of course this information is available online (how much light plants need, etc.) when in fact it simply isn’t there. I realized how secretive the agriculture industry is and I think that is something that really needs to change. I think that it will become more open source and become more collaborative. I think that competition can still exist while helping people everywhere grow better food. At MIT CityFARM we want to make a platform for which people can share data on lighting, energy, nutrients, controls, and more.

H: Agriculture is so variable. How will you make this data shareable and applicable to so many different contexts?

E: Well, we are going to partner with Masdar and develop “mirror labs” there and elsewhere. This will really test how we share data across geographical realms. It will be the real test of how we create a language and collaboration around city farming. 

H: Last question: what has been the most exciting part of the GFIA conference?

E: While I don’t think my jaw ever dropped, it was nice to know how people are communicating about this food revolution. It is nice to know that there are so many people who are forward thinking and share our perspective. Its really about pushing boundaries and proving if you can actually achieve many of these innovations being talked about. I am most interested in continuing the dialogue here and how that helps move us beyond the technology, communication, and data challenges we face.

Click here to learn more about the MIT CityFARM and watch the video below. Follow them on Twitter!

Singapore’s ComCrop rooftop urban farm is thriving!

Tucked away in the heart of Orchard Road is a uncommon sight for Singapore’s main shopping belt.

A vegetable and fish farm called Comcrop is located on the rooftop of *SCAPE.

With 6,000 square feet of space, it can produce eight to 10 times more than traditional farms over the same area by using vertical farming techniques.

The farm also uses aquaponics, a self-sustaining system that breaks down by-products from tilapia, a type of fish, which are utilised by plants as nutrients. The clean water is then fed back to the plants.

Its founders said being a local food producer means delivering crops fresh, right after they are harvested.

They have reached out to more than 20 prospective customers, and received positive feedback from some who do not mind paying a bit more for quality.

Bjorn Shen, head chef and owner at Artichoke Cafe & Bar, said: “For us… we believe in quality first. So as long as we are willing to absorb the costs, as long as customers are willing to pay a bit more for something that is of great quality, it is something we want to carry on doing.”

And it is more than just business at Comcrop. Every week, students from Victoria Junior College and Singapore Polytechnic, as well as the elderly from Tampines-Changkat Constituency, come together to tend to the vegetable and fish at the rooftop farm.

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan, who was at the farm earlier on Friday, said he is impressed by how it fosters social cohesion and collaboration, and hopes for more of such initiatives.

And that may be sooner than expected.

The farm said it already is in talks with several parties to expand to other rooftops of commercial buildings in Singapore. 

SOURCE

FRIDAYS ONLY, 4 TO 7 PM

FEBRUARY 28TH TO APRIL 25TH

Water,  Energy,  and  Waste:  Integrating  Themes of Sustainability  into  Your  Classroom offers  k-­8 science  and  classroom  teachers  the  unique opportunity  to  delve  deeper  into  global environmental  issues  on a  local  level.  

Situated  within  the  novel  setting  of  a  sustainable, rooftop, hydroponic,  urban  farm/greenhouse classroom,  this  course  allows teachers  to  learn more  about  current  environmental  concerns through  a  blend   of  technology,  discussion,  and engaging  hands-­on  projects.  

 This  course  has  been  approved  by  the  DOE After School  Professional  Development  Program

(ASPDP)  and  may  be  counted  for  three  “P”Credits/36 hours. The cost is $125—ASPDP fee only; NYSW provides all project materials including small hydroponic kits, solar cars and worm composting bins at no cost. Special guests inlcude NYSW bioresource engineer Ashley King; Solar One Director of K-12 Education Programming Sarah Pidgeon; FoodFight founder and co-Director Deb Grant; NYC H20 Educator Matt Malina; MealsonHeals founder Mindy Kobrin; and Museum Educator Meglena Zapreva.

 Sessions will be conducted on Fridays only 4 to 7 pm at the Sun Works Center at P.S. 333 by resident science teacher Shakira Castronovo. Sign-in TODAY at ASPDP website.

For more information about the course please email: mzamora@nysunworks.org

Read this recent essay by Dr. Dickson Despommier on the benefits of vertical farming:

The advent of agriculture has ushered in an unprecedented increase in the human population and their domesticated animals. Farming catalyzed our transformation from primitive hunter-gatherers to sophisticated urban dwellers in just 10,000 years. Today, over 800 million hectares is committed to soil-based agriculture, or about 38% of the total landmass of the earth. It has re-arranged the landscape in favor of cultivated fields at the expense of natural ecosystems, reducing most natural areas to fragmented, semi-functional units, while completely eliminating many others. A reliable food supply was the result. This singular invention has facilitated our growth as a species to the point now of world domination over the natural world from which we evolved. Despite the obvious advantage of not having to hunt or scavenge for our next meal, farming has led to new health hazards by creating ecotones between the natural world and our cultivated fields. As the result, transmission rates of numerous infectious disease agents have dramatically increased- influenza, rabies, yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria, trypanosomiasis, hookworm, schistosomiasis – and today these agents emerge and re-emerge with devastating regularity at the tropical and sub-tropical agricultural interface. Modern agriculture employs a multitude of chemical products, and exposure to toxic levels of some classes of agrochemicals (pesticides, fungicides) have created other significant health risks that are only now being sorted out by epidemiologists and toxicologists. As if that were no enough to be concerned about, it is predicted that over the next 50 years, the human population is expected to rise to at least 8.6 billion, requiring an additional 109 hectares to feed them using current technologies, or roughly the size of Brazil. That quantity of additional arable land is simply not available. Without an alternative strategy for dealing with just this one problem, social chaos will surely replace orderly behavior in most over-crowded countries. Novel ways for obtaining an abundant and varied food supply without encroachment into the few remaining functional ecosystems must be seriously entertained. One solution involves the construction of urban food production centers – vertical farms – in which our food would be continuously grown inside of tall buildings within the built environment. If we could engineer this approach to food production, then no crops would ever fail due to severe weather events (floods, droughts, hurricanes, etc.). Produce would be available to city dwellers without the need to transport it thousands of miles from rural farms to city markets. Spoilage would be greatly reduced, since crops would be sold and consumed within moments after harvesting. If vertical farming in urban centers becomes the norm, then one anticipated long-term benefit would be the gradual repair of many of the world’s damaged ecosystems through the systematic abandonment of farmland. In temperate and tropical zones, the re-growth of hardwood forests could play a significant role in carbon sequestration and may help reverse current trends in global climate change. Other benefits of vertical farming include the creation of a sustainable urban environment that encourages good health for all who choose to live there; new employment opportunities, fewer abandoned lots and buildings, cleaner air, safe use of municipal liquid waste, and an abundant supply of safe drinking water.

READ MORE

iamsteeeve23:

"The Greenhouse" Veritcal Farm in Florida. -  Source 

Indoor Harvest, Corp., through its brand name Indoor Harvest™, is a development stage company that seeks to become a design build contractor, developer, marketer and direct-seller of commercial grade aeroponic fixtures and supporting systems for use in urban Controlled Environment Agriculture (“CEA”) and Building Integrated Agriculture (“BIA”). The Company is pleased to announce that is has begun phase one construction of a demonstration aeroponic vertical farm in Houston, Texas.

The Company has leased an initial 10,000 square feet of industrial office/warehouse space minutes from downtown Houston with frontage access to the I-10 interstate corridor. The project will be broken into two phases, with a total estimated construction cost of $850,000. Phase one, which is expected to be completed by mid 2014, will include planning, city approvals and infrastructure improvements to the leased facility. Phase two, which will begin mid 2014, will involve the installation of the aeroponic farming system, controls and processing facilities. The Company recently closed $442,000 in private equity funding to complete phase one and has plans to raise additional capital to complete phase two. The completion of the project is contingent on our raising additional funds, of which there is no assurance.

Vertical farming has been shown as a possible solution for increasing urban food supplies while decreasing the ecological impact of farming. If developed, we believe this method of farming to be the next generation of farming and the start of automated, technology-based urban food production. CEA and BIA vertical farming practices are not dependent on the climate and can produce 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Indoor Harvest is currently developing equipment and methods that it believes will lower the barrier of entry for urban vertical farmers. The Company believes based upon management’s knowledge of the industry that there may be a growing opportunity in the local production of quality, non-GMO, pesticide free produce for restaurants and specialty grocers using the Company’s patent pending aeroponic system. We believe that currently the cost to successfully launch such a business can be cost prohibitive due to the amount of research and development required. In order to reduce the barrier to entry, Indoor Harvest aims to develop methods and systems to lower this barrier by providing tested turn-key solutions. The Company’s demonstration facility will initially serve to conduct the necessary research and development towards best practices and will in the future serve as a demonstration facility for the Company’s products and services.

Mr. Chad Sykes, Chief Executive Officer of the Company, stated, “Given our changing climate and growing global population, we believe new ways of producing food will be needed. We here at Indoor Harvest are focused on becoming a significant part of that effort.

Scalability and slim margins have been a big issue for large scale vertical farming to date. We believe, however, that smaller vertical farming operations, particularly those focused on very niche high value products may not face these same issues. We believe that these smaller vertical farming operations are a great market to pursue which we hope can provide us with the feedback and knowledge needed to really develop larger vertical farming solutions for the future.”

ABOUT INDOOR HARVEST CORP

Indoor Harvest, Corp., through its brand name Indoor Harvest™, is an emerging design build contractor and OEM manufacturer of commercial aeroponic system fixtures and components for use in urban Controlled Environment Agriculture and Building Integrated Agriculture. Our patent pending aeroponic fixtures are based upon a modular concept in which primary components are interchangeable providing a level of customization that we believe, based upon our knowledge of the industry, is currently not offered by other aeroponic system manufactures. We are developing our aeroponic fixtures and systems for use by both horticulture enthusiasts and commercial operators who seek to utilize aeroponic vertical farming methods within a controlled indoor environment. Please visit our website at http://www.indoorharvest.com for more information about our Company.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains certain “forward-looking statements” relating to the business of Indoor Harvest and its subsidiary companies, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “estimates,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “intends,” expects” and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are based on Indoor Harvest’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on Indoor Harvest. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Indoor Harvest will be those anticipated by Indoor Harvest. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of the Company) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Indoor Harvest undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

SOURCE REUTERS

The Portable Farm of the Future: growtainer is coming.

Question to Agritecture:

"Hi there, how exactly would someone get into this field? Would one go to an Architecture, Agriculture, or Botany degree to start off? How would some go from starting off to getting into the field?"

Answer:

Agritecture includes urban agriculture planners, architects focused on building-integrated agriculture, sustainability strategists, technology specialists, hydroponic and soil-based farmers, marketers, collaborators, investors, and more…take your pick. Find something about the global food security challenge that you are passionate about and then build yourself into an expert at that.

A good place to start is the Association for Vertical Farming. Contact your regional manager and ask for advice on companies and contacts to pursue.

@agritecture

Home buyers who crave open spaces, verdant fields and fresh food are flocking to “agrihoods”. 

In many American suburbs, outward signs of life are limited to the blue glow of television screens flickering behind energy-efficient windows. But in a subdivision of this bedroom community outside Phoenix, amid precision-cut lawns and Craftsman-style homes, lambs caper in common green areas, chickens scratch in a citrus grove and residents roam rows of heirloom vegetables to see what might be good for dinner.

The neighborhood is called Agritopia, and it’s one of a growing number of so-called agrihoods, residential developments where a working farm is the central feature, in the same way that other communities may cluster around a golf course, pool or fitness center. The real estate bust in 2008 halted new construction, but with the recovery, developers are again breaking ground on farm-focused tracts. At least a dozen projects across the country are thriving, enlisting thousands of home buyers who crave access to open space, verdant fields and fresh food.

“I hear from developers all the time about this,” said Ed McMahon, a senior fellow for sustainable development at the Urban Land Institute, a nonprofit real estate research group in Washington, D. C. “They’ve figured out that unlike a golf course, which costs millions to build and millions to maintain, they can provide green space that actually earns a profit.” Not to mention a potential tax break for preserving agricultural land.

Singapore: Comcrop Pioneers Urban Rooftop Farming

Located on orchard road on top of the *Scape building, the 6000-square feet rooftop farm is right at the heart of Singapore’s city center.

“We use land that is otherwise not used. And the sheer fact that we produce our products right next to the doorsteps of our potential customers means a giant carbon-based food print is reduced. It also reduces a lot of logistics in bringing imports into our country,” Comcrop co-founder Keith Loh tells www.freshfruitportal.com.

Not only is the budding business the first in Singapore to apply vertical farming, but it claims to be the first to deploy aquaponics to urban horticulture in a tropical area.

SOURCE