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PHOTO COURTESY OF GOTHAM GREENS AND JULIE MCMAHON
From one greenhouse in Brooklyn, NY, Gotham Greens is now poised to operate in ve states and is one of the largest hydroponic greenhouse salad producers in North America.
“Much of this growing is done vertically which saves on space,” says Spezzano. “The marketplace can only move so much of this type of produce, and that causes limitations to the segment’s growth.
“For indoor urban agriculture to truly be successful and pro table, they will have to gure out how to grow other items like strawberries,” Spezzano says, pointing to DelFrescoPure of Kingsville, ON, as an example of an indoor strawberry program that attracts a large premium.
ONE STEP AT A TIME
For now, most of the sector’s leading players remain focused on leafy greens. This includes Gotham Greens of Brooklyn, NY, which was founded a decade ago at a time when the technology was extremely novel.
“Since its pioneering greenhouse launch in 2011, Gotham Greens has grown from a single urban rooftop greenhouse in Brooklyn, NY, to a multi-state indoor farming leader and one of the largest hydroponic green- house salad producers in North America,” says chief executive and co-founder Viraj Puri. “There were few, if any, in the space doing what we were doing, and people were skeptical of our vision to build urban, rooftop greenhouses in New York City to grow fresh produce year-round.”
Gotham Greens now operates more than 180,000 square feet of greenhouses in New York and Chicago, and has another 500,000
square feet of greenhouses that will be oper- ational over the next few months across ve U.S. states, including Maryland and Rhode Island.
“A plethora of start-ups exist in the controlled environment agriculture sector, and we’re proud of the mark we’ve made on this, literally, growing industry,” says Puri. “We are bullish in the segment but are also restrained in the outlook of high-tech, urban agriculture becoming the ‘future of farming’.”
While optimistic about the part urban farming can play in a more diverse and sustain- able food system, he cautions the sector is still in its infancy and has a long way to go to become commercially viable on a wide scale.
“Gotham Greens is a successful example, but the industry needs to mature before we proclaim that it is a panacea, or even a partial answer, to the signi cant ecological, public health and economic concerns facing our current food system,” he says, adding the sector for the time being will remain focused on highly perishable, high-value vegetables, fruit and herbs.
The value proposition of urban farming is well known, particularly when it comes to protecting the environment. According to Fain of Bowery Farming, food trucking trans- portation accounts for 12.5% of total carbon emissions in the United States, so being close to market can drastically minimize a grower’s carbon footprint.
IMPROVING WATER, ENERGY EFFICIENCY
The bene ts go much further than carbon footprints, according to CEA industry propo- nents. On his blog, Kimbal Musk, co-founder and chairman of Square Roots in Brooklyn, NY, says his company’s modular climate containers use 90% less water than outdoor farms.
Meanwhile, Fain notes Bowery Farming uses 95% less water than traditional agricul- ture by recirculating it continuously through its grow system and only replenishing the amount used by plants or lost during daily operations.
Oshima of AeroFarms and Puri of Gotham Greens cite the same percentage reduction for water usage compared to traditional farms.
“We grow our produce using hydroponic systems in 100% renewable electricity-pow- ered greenhouses that are able to grow 35 times more lettuce per acre than conven- tional farming while using 95% less water,” says Puri. “This will free up valuable fertile land that can be put to alternative uses in agriculture or otherwise.”
Paul Lightfoot, chief executive at Irvington, NY-based BrightFarms, says the majority of energy used for his company’s crops comes from the sun through its glass houses, rather than arti cial lighting. It only uses supplemental lighting when there is not enough sunlight.
“Our growing methods are more sustain- able than eld-grown produce and materi- ally more sustainable than the vertical farms that rely entirely on arti cial lighting,” he says. “Growing with the sun’s energy does not consume fossil elds and does not emit greenhouse gases.”
Musk of Square Roots notes, “We can also be clever about energy usage. For example, we make it “daytime” in the farm by turning on our grow lights overnight when there is excess energy in the grid, and the cost per kilowatt hour is lower.”
On its website, Square Roots in Brooklyn says it “harvests, self-packages, and herb-trike-delivers its herbs to retail stores across New York City. Our herbs are non-GMO, pesticide-free, and grown with love.”
22 / SEP TEMBER 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS