Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 11 May 2018

People, power costs keep indoor farming down to Earth

By RYAN NAKASHIMA ant’s secretive “moonshot
AP Technology Writer factory,” killed its indoor
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, farming efforts because it
Calif. (AP) — There’s a bud- couldn’t grow food staples
ding industry that’s trying like grains and rice.
to solve the problem of the Even fans of the technol-
limp lettuce and tasteless ogy aren’t sure it can beat
tomatoes in America’s su- another sheltered alterna-
permarkets. tive: greenhouses.
It’s full of technologists who “Vertical farming to a lot of
grow crops in buildings in- (investors) is an ‘if’ and a
stead of outdoors, short- ‘maybe’ versus a ‘when,’”
cutting the need to prema- says Cleantech adviser
turely harvest produce for Yoachim Haynes. “The
a bumpy ride often thou- question that needs to be
sands of miles to consumers answered is, ‘Can they do
in colder climes. it with cheaper electric-
More than 30 high-tech ity and cheaper labor?’
companies from the U.S. to This is not a question that
Singapore hoping to turn many have been able to
indoor farming into a major answer.”
future food source, if only Barnard says Plenty can
they can clear a stubborn prosper if it spends 3 to 5
hurdle: high costs. cents per kilowatt hour on
These companies stack In this Jan. 18, 2018 photo, production manager Emy Kelty, left, and senior grower Molly Kreykes power — well below the
plants inside climate-con- scan and monitor plants growing on towers in the grow room at the Plenty, Inc. office in South San 10.4 cents that is the aver-
trolled rooms, parse out Francisco, Calif. age price nationwide, ac-
nutrients and water, and Associated Press cording to the U.S. Energy
bathe them with special- billion. In a nutshell, Barnard the look of a 3D movie to market research firm Information Administration.
ized light. It’s all so consum- argues that some of that watched without glasses. Cleantech Group. While Plenty announced
ers can enjoy tasty veg- money could be diverted Maturing plants are stuffed “The question is, how are plans to build a 100,000
etables year-round using a to crops that grow in rain or into columns where they they going to scale?” asks square-foot facility in the
fraction of the water and shine. grow sideways, fed by drip Pawel Hardej, CEO of Civic Seattle suburb of Kent in
land that traditional farm- Plenty grows kale, mixed irrigation, and irradiated by Farms, a vertical farming November, it said it isn’t in
ing requires. Farmers can greens, basil and natural columns of light-emitting di- consultancy in Austin, Tex- talks about power breaks
even brag the produce is sweetener stevia in a grey, odes. as. There have been plenty with any U.S. city now.
locally grown. low-rise warehouse com- The plants will be clipped of indoor farming failures Seattle City Light provided
But real estate around cit- plex in the industrial suburb and packaged before already. $10,000 worth of energy-ef-
ies is pricey. Electricity and of South San Francisco. heading to stores later FarmedHere shuttered its ficient lighting to an indoor
labor don’t come cheap. Visitors arriving via the back this year. For indoor farms, operations in Louisville, Ken- growing facility that helped
And unlike specialty crops door must don full-body making money has largely tucky, and Bedford Park, Il- feed the city’s homeless.
like newly legal marijuana, overalls and rubber boots meant shipping in bulk to linois, in January last year But it already offers the low-
veggies rarely command dipped in disinfecting shoe grocery stores, a conun- due to cost overruns. est power rate of the top
premium prices. (It’s tough baths before entering the drum if costs aren’t in line. Georgia-based PodPonics, 25 cities in America. “That’s
to compete with plants air-tight workspace. Investment in indoor farm- which filed for bankruptcy the deal that’s on the ta-
grown in dirt with free sun- Seedlings are grown on ing soared to $271 million in 2016, cited labor costs as ble,” says spokesman Scott
light, after all.) flatbeds and bathed in last year, up from just $36 its biggest drag. Thomsen.
Even the best-funded in- purple light that gives them million in 2016, according Google’s X, the search gi- Chicago provided some
door farming company on $344,000 in construction
the planet — Plenty, which grants since 2008 to The
has raised nearly $230 mil- Plant , a former pork pro-
lion so far — has embraced cessing plant that is home
a longtime farmers’ crutch: to multiple indoor farms.
government handouts. It While that helped with
hasn’t found any takers yet. structural improvements, it
“We believe society should didn’t help with operations,
consider investing in this says John Edel, the presi-
new form of agriculture in dent of Bubbly Dynamics
the way it invested in ag- LLC, which owns The Plant.
riculture in the 1940s,” said Supplying grocery stores
Plenty CEO Matt Barnard in in large volumes is “harder
a recent interview. than it sounds,” he says.
Barnard says public aid And other ways of obtain-
— in the form of cheaper ing cheap power — like
power — is one way to turn The Plant’s plan to install a
a good but elusive idea bio-gas guzzling turbine —
into a sustainable venture. have faced obstacles that
Last year, the U.S. paid make it uneconomical.
farmers $9.3 billion in direct “There isn’t a whole lot in
support, and subsidized the way of incentives for
weather-related crop in- This Jan. 18, 2018 photo shows plant seedlings growing under LED lights in the seedling room at the farms here,” Edel says.
surance to the tune of $5.1 Plenty, Inc. office in South San Francisco, Calif. “There needs to be.”q