Inside Dyson's New Circular Strawberry Farm

Not bad! Strawberry Fields Forever (The Beatles)

Dyson's vertical farming revolutionizes strawberry farming with robots out of season

Amazing stuff! Strawberry fields forever (The Beatles)!

"... Dyson's impressive vertical farming operation, which is home to 1,225,000 strawberry plants and shows you how the company is applying its manufacturing knowledge to producing homegrown food for British consumers. ...

Inside, giant wheels weighing about 500 kg (~1,100 lb) hold rows of strawberry plants that are slowly rotated to provide them optimal exposure to sunlight. 

UV-emitting robots rove the aisles exposing the plants to enough light to kill any mold that dares grow on the plant leaves, while a distributor bot releases beneficial bugs onto the plants in order to kill aphids and other destructive pests.

When the strawberries are ripe enough to be picked, the job is done by 16 robot arms that delicately pluck each fruit from the plant. According to James Dyson himself, the bots were able to harvest 200,000 strawberries in one month alone. ..."

"... Dyson Farming’s circular farming system is its new 26-acre glasshouse in Carrington, Lincolnshire. ..."

Dyson's vertical farming revolutionizes strawberry growth

Dyson Farming Strawberry Production

First US indoor vertical farm opens, to produce 4 million pounds of with peak-season flavor strawberries year-round with no pesticides

Good news! Welcome the future of agriculture! Way to go! The many benefits are mind boggling!

"... the "world's first farm to grow indoor, vertically farmed berries at scale" opening in Richmond, VA. ...

The Plenty Richmond Farm is designed to produce more than four million pounds (1.8M kg) of strawberries grown indoors vertically in 30-ft-tall (9-m) towers, using up less than 40,000 square feet – or less than a single acre.  ...

With temperature, light and humidity controlled across 12 growing 'rooms,' pollination of plants has also been engineered to be more efficient than bees. ...

“The Plenty Richmond Farm is the culmination of 200 research trials over the past six years to perfect growing strawberries with consistent peak-season flavor indoors year-round. ...” ...

The Richmond farm uses 97% less land and up to 90% less water than conventional farming, eradicates the use of pesticides, and the controlled environment and shorter supply chain will also lower pathogenic risk to crops. ..."

First US indoor vertical farm opens, to produce 4M lb of food year-round

Iceland's vertical farm turning algae into food

Very recommendable! Is this the future of agriculture and food? Using geothermal energy?

Empty Office Buildings Are Being Turned Into Vertical Farms

Yesterday, I blogged here about the negative impact high energy costs on vertical farming. Here is more about this fascinating subject! Even the McKinsey Global Institute can not resist it.

What to do with all this office space now that the home office is so convenient?  A challenge for business/management consultancies like McKinsey! Here comes the multiuse office! What a brilliant idea! 😊

The urbanization of agriculture thanks to human ingenuity! From cubicles to cucumbers! 😊 As they say, no army in the world can stop an idea whose time has come (Victor Hugo)!

"... According to data gathered in 10 major cities, office usage rates just crossed 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels in late January, and these numbers seem to be stalling only a few months later. Nearly 20 percent of office space is empty across the United States, and some projections suggest that more than 300 million square feet of U.S. office space could be obsolete by 2030. ...
when designing Area 2’s growing apparatus, Silo. Silo is a multilevel conveyor belt system that moves vertically throughout the day to replicate a plant’s natural circadian rhythm. Since the system moves automatically, Silo’s conveyor belt cuts down on some of the backbreaking work that accompanies traditional vertical farming methods, such as climbing up and down ladders. Also, Silo requires no modifications to the existing building before installation. Area 2 Farms plans on building a model of Silo in Union Station in Washington later this year to showcase its growing technology and advocate for local food systems. ...
In Calgary, Alberta, AgriPlay Ventures transformed part of underutilized office space in Calgary Tower Center into one of Canada’s largest indoor urban farms earlier this year. ...
The farm at Calgary Tower produces tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, greens and much more for the local community, with some crops offering 30 harvests a year. Although only one floor of the approximately 262,500-square-foot building is currently being utilized for food production, AgriPlay wants to expand to another two floors in the coming months and years."

"At a glance

Hybrid work is here to stay. As a result, office attendance has stabilized at 30 percent below prepandemic norms.

... residents have left urban cores and shifted their shopping elsewhere. For example, New York City’s urban core lost 5 percent of its population from mid-2020 to mid-2022, and San Francisco’s lost 6 percent. Urban vacancy rates have shot up. Foot traffic near stores in metropolitan areas remains 10 to 20 percent below prepandemic levels. 

Demand for office and retail space ... will remain below prepandemic levels. In a moderate scenario that we modeled, demand for office space is 13 percent lower in 2030 than it was in 2019 for the median city in our study. In a severe scenario, demand falls by 38 percent in the most heavily affected city.

...

Cities and buildings can adapt and thrive by taking hybrid approaches themselves. Priorities might include developing mixed-use neighborhoods, constructing more adaptable buildings, and designing multiuse office and retail space. ..."

Empty Office Buildings Are Being Turned Into Vertical Farms | Innovation| Smithsonian Magazine With office usage hovering near 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels, cities are putting the underutilized space to new use growing food

Empty spaces and hybrid places: The pandemic’s lasting impact on real estate Real estate in the world’s superstar cities has not kept up with shifts in behavior caused by the pandemic. The cities’ vibrancy is at risk, and they will have to adapt.

High energy costs are hitting the vertical farming industry hard

Very recommendable! Bad news, but not everywhere!

From Japan to Iceland, futuristic vertical farms are starting to bloom

Good news! The next agricultural revolution is in progress! Especially for Iceland with long dark winters!

"In 2016, a new farm in Japan made headlines. It wasn’t your average farm — instead of using soil, it used a hydroponic system, and instead of using sunlight, it used artificial LEDs. But the farm could grow 12,000 heads of lettuce per day, close to urban areas where the product is in high demand.
This isn’t an isolated example. Just one year later, another lettuce vertical farm was established in Iceland, producing a variety of greens that it sells to restaurants and retailers, without using any sunlight whatsoever. ...
When you think about indoor farms, something like a greenhouse likely pops up. But a sweeping trend is revolutionizing indoor farming, moving it from the horizontal to the vertical — and it’s no longer just a concept. All over the world, we’re seeing examples of vertical farming projects, and while significant challenges still exist, the appeal of the technology is hard to ignore. ..."

From Japan to Iceland, futuristic vertical farms are starting to bloom Indoor farming is a growing trend in urban centers, where a single facility can grow millions of heads of lettuce.

Indoor Farming Revolution For World’s Priciest Spice

Will we soon get a cheaper taste of saffron? As an aficionado of spices I look forward to trying saffron! Variety is the spice of life! 😊

"... Saffron-Tech, a startup founded in 2020, is transforming the way saffron is grown, and, possibly, the way it is traded.

Its team of expert agronomists have developed technology to produce four harvests a year, instead of one, and to grow the corms (that’s the correct term for a saffron bulb) indoors, rather than in open fields.

They use sophisticated vertical-farming methods, with layer above layer of the corms, in conditions where the temperature, humidity, and irrigation and are strictly regulated by artificial intelligence.

It’s the first significant change to the way saffron has been grown commercially in centuries, and is 50 times more productive than field cultivation."

Indoor Farming Revolution For World’s Priciest Spice AI method of growing saffron is 50 times more productive

Vertical farming appears to take off in various countries

The next, overdue revolution in agriculture is on its way! Less dependence on nature! No sunlight and soil, please! When is a vertical farm coming to a place near you?

Unfortunately, the article does not list but four countries!

"In 2016, a new farm in Japan made headlines. It wasn’t your average farm — instead of using soil, it used a hydroponic system, and instead of using sunlight, it used artificial LEDs. But the farm could grow 12,000 heads of lettuce per day, close to urban areas where the product is in high demand.

This isn’t an isolated example. Just one year later, another lettuce vertical farm was established in Iceland, producing a variety of greens that it sells to restaurants and retailers, without using any sunlight whatsoever. ...
All over the world, we’re seeing examples of vertical farming projects, and while significant challenges still exist, the appeal of the technology is hard to ignore. ...
There are several different ways to do indoor farming, but the most common approach is to use hydroponic systems. ...
it allows for year-round production ... and can be done in smaller places, it’s excellently suited for urban (or near-urban) growing. This reduces the costs and environmental problems associated with transportation. ...
More recently, a farm in Kyoto developed by a company called Spread became a record-breaking facility that also introduced bees to pollinate its strawberries, achieving stable pollination under LED conditions ...
Singapore is also betting on vertical farms with one farm established in 2022 producing 500 tonnes of greens each year, in addition to its previous projects. Being able to grow food directly in urban areas means you can bring it to consumers quickly and inexpensively. ...
It’s estimated there are more than 2,000 vertical farms in the US, and the market is expected to grow $4.21 billion in 2021 to $5.04 billion in 2022. ..."

From Japan to Iceland, futuristic vertical farms are starting to bloom Indoor farming is a growing trend in urban centers, where a single facility can grow millions of heads of lettuce.

Silicon Valley startup has big plans for its first vertical farming facility in Phoenix metro

Good news!

"Sam Bertram, co-founder of Silicon Valley-based OnePointOne, was recently named one of Forbes 30 under 30. Find out what he's planning for the company's largest vertical farming facility to date being built in the West Valley ..."

Silicon Valley-based OnePointOne plans to use upcoming Avondale facility as a 'model' for vertical farm operations - Phoenix Business Journal

Hydroponic Farming: How hydroponic farming is coming to India

Good news! 

"The fresh-produce market in India is expected to reach $10 billion by 2025, and traditional farming alone won’t be able to meet this demand. High-tech vertical farming can help Indian farmers produce food where and when they need it by eliminating the need to find fertile land and quality soil." (Source: McKinsey & Co.)

Hydroponic Farming: How hydroponic farming is redefining the approach of adopting a healthy lifestyle?

The system helping you grow your own food from your balcony in Kenya

Recommendable! Vertical agriculture/farming in a controlled environment is the way of the future!

Israel is getting some competition from Kenya!

The technologies helping move agriculture indoors

Recommendable! Quite possible, Israel is a world leader in advancing agricultural technologies.

Thanks to the Abraham Accords, Israel and the UAE are planning to build advanced greenhouses in the desert of the UAE

"Though it costs more to raise produce in greenhouses or urban “farm factories,” the payoff is higher yield, quality and market value. The plants can grow year-round with less fertilizer and pesticide. ...
[A] 5.5-acre medical cannabis greenhouse complex in Greece is covered with f-CLEAN, a durable polymer offering exceptional light transmission and energy savings. ...
A British-Israeli venture formed from a merger of two established companies about eight years ago, Growponics designs and builds automated hydroponic greenhouse factories in urban settings. ... The plants move on conveyers. We eliminate aisles, which normally take up 15 to 20% of greenhouse space; and we adjust the spacing between plants in different parts of the growth cycle. That alone can increase yield by more than 40% on top of the savings from eliminating aisles. ..."

The technologies helping move agriculture indoors - ISRAEL21c

iFarm Raises $4 million to automate urban vertical farming with AI and drones

The next revolution in agriculture is in the making!



"The Finnish startup has developed a vertical agricultural system called iFarm Growtune. By growing food closer to consumers and in spaces where conditions can be carefully controlled, iFarm promises to produce food that is fresher while reducing environmental impact."



iFarm Raises $4 million to automate urban farming with AI and drones | VentureBeat