Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/838473
q&a building responsible farms in major cities all over the world, trans- forming agriculture and enabling local production at scale. Describe your facilities. How many square feet do you have devoted to growing crops? We have four working farms in Newark right now. Our largest (and the largest indoor vertical farm in the world) is 70,000 square feet, with 12 levels that stretch 36 feet high. We have a second commer- cial farm covering 30,000 square feet with seven levels of growing. Our largest farm can produce 2 million pounds of leafy greens and herbs per year. We have grown more than 250 varieties; right now we are growing pac choi, arugula, kale, red romaine, watercress, and Ruby Streaks mustard greens. And then we have our research and development lab, as well as a working school farm in the dining hall at Philip's Academy Charter School in Newark, offering the shortest farm-to-table experience possible. AeroFarms is as much a technology company as it is an agricultural company. What would you say are the goals of your research and development? We are plant whisperers, giving them what they need when they need it. We like to say that AeroFarms is where horticulture meets engineering meets data science. We collect 130,000 data points per harvest using sensors and 3D modeling techniques. But with all this, our plant scientists are laser-focused on opti- mizing one thing: taste. Taste and texture is what is going to bring customers back. We also make sure that our greens are safer, setting a new standard from seed to package, and we have optimized yield- to-grow as much and as fast as possible, without pesticides. But if it doesn't taste good, what's the point, right? Who do you view as your primary competition? We are competing with all the major salad brands. Almost all the lettuce in the U.S. is grown in Salinas Valley, California, and trucked all over the country and the world. But the water, the transit, weather volatility, and climate change are making that untenable, and we are offering an alternative with a better product. At our heart, we are farmers too, providing new opportunities and solutions to the next generation. Last year, I was asked to speak For those who are unfamiliar, can you describe what vertical farming is? Vertical farming, to us, means farming indoors in warehouses with growing beds stacked one on top of another for large-scale commer- cial production. We grow without sun or soil in a controlled indoor environment. Our produce grows in a patented growing cloth sub- strate, with a targeted misting system below that provides water and nutrients while keeping the greens clean and growing above the cloth. Which market segments are your biggest buyers? We supply restaurants, corporate dining, and schools, but our biggest customers are at retail. You can purchase our retail brand, Dream Greens, through ShopRite, Whole Foods Market, Seabra Foods and FreshDirect. We are launching in new retailers on an almost weekly basis and we're planning to open 25 new farms in the next five years, and not just in the U.S. We have projects in motion on four continents. What are some of vertical farming's biggest sell- ing points over traditional farming? We have optimized our proprietary aeroponic growing system for faster harvest cycles and optimized nutrition and flavor, superior food safety, and less environmental impact, using zero pesticides and over 95 percent less water than field farming. Plus, we have 130 times more productivity per square foot than a field farm and 10 times more than a greenhouse, while using less than 1 percent of the land required by conventional field growing to produce the same yields. Furthermore, our irrigation system is a closed-loop system, meaning that our nutrient and water solution is filtered and recircu- lated—part of the reason we were honored by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as one of the Circular Economy 100, a select group of global companies focused on eliminating waste. As a certified B Corporation, AeroFarms is a mission-driven company focused on "We are plant whisperers, giving them what they need when they need it. We like to say that AeroFarms is where horticulture meets engineering meets data science." 74 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com