Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Friday 23 august 2019
People, power costs keep indoor farming down to Earth

By RYAN NAKASHIMA couldn’t grow food staples
AP Technology Writer like grains and rice.
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Even fans of the technol-
Calif. (AP) — There’s a bud- ogy aren’t sure it can beat
ding industry that’s trying another sheltered alterna-
to solve the problem of the tive: greenhouses.
limp lettuce and tasteless “Vertical farming to a lot of
tomatoes in America’s su- (investors) is an ‘if’ and a
permarkets. ‘maybe’ versus a ‘when,’”
It’s full of technologists who says Cleantech adviser
grow crops in buildings in- Yoachim Haynes. “The
stead of outdoors, short- question that needs to be
cutting the need to prema- answered is, ‘Can they do
turely harvest produce for it with cheaper electricity
a bumpy ride often thou- and cheaper labor?’ This is
sands of miles to consumers not a question that many
in colder climes. have been able to an-
More than 30 high-tech swer.” Barnard says Plenty
companies from the U.S. to can prosper if it spends 3
Singapore hoping to turn to 5 cents per kilowatt hour
indoor farming into a major on power — well below the
future food source, if only 10.4 cents that is the aver-
they can clear a stubborn age price nationwide, ac-
hurdle: high costs. cording to the U.S. Energy
These companies stack In this Jan. 18, 2018 photo, production manager Emy Kelty, left, and senior grower Molly Kreykes Information Administration.
plants inside climate-con- scan and monitor plants growing on towers in the grow room at the Plenty, Inc. office in South San While Plenty announced
trolled rooms, parse out Francisco, Calif. plans to build a 100,000
nutrients and water, and Associated Press square-foot facility in the
bathe them with special- billion. In a nutshell, Barnard grow sideways, fed by drip million in 2016, according Seattle suburb of Kent in
ized light. It’s all so consum- argues that some of that irrigation, and irradiated by to market research firm November, it said it isn’t in
ers can enjoy tasty veg- money could be diverted columns of light-emitting di- Cleantech Group. talks about power breaks
etables year-round using a to crops that grow in rain or odes. “The question is, how are with any U.S. city now.
fraction of the water and shine. The plants will be clipped they going to scale?” asks Most public support has so
land that traditional farm- Plenty grows kale, mixed and packaged before Pawel Hardej, CEO of Civic far been in rebates for en-
ing requires. Farmers can greens, basil and natural heading to stores later this Farms, a vertical farming ergy-efficient lighting, not
even brag the produce is sweetener stevia in a grey, year. consultancy in Austin, Tex- running costs.
locally grown. low-rise warehouse com- But there are some notice- as. There have been plenty Seattle City Light provided
But real estate around cit- plex in the industrial suburb able gaps in the menu. of indoor farming failures $10,000 worth of energy-ef-
ies is pricey. Electricity and of South San Francisco. There are no carrots or already. ficient lighting to an indoor
labor don’t come cheap. Visitors arriving via the back tomatoes, because long FarmedHere shuttered its growing facility that helped
And unlike specialty crops door must don full-body roots that grow down and operations in Louisville, Ken- feed the city’s homeless.
like newly legal marijuana, overalls and rubber boots vines that require human tucky, and Bedford Park, Il- But it already offers the low-
veggies rarely command dipped in disinfecting shoe pruning don’t do well on linois, in January last year est power rate of the top
premium prices. (It’s tough baths before entering the walls. due to cost overruns. 25 cities in America. “That’s
to compete with plants air-tight workspace. For indoor farms, making Georgia-based PodPonics, the deal that’s on the ta-
grown in dirt with free sun- Seedlings are grown on money has largely meant which filed for bankruptcy ble,” says spokesman Scott
light, after all.) flatbeds and bathed in shipping in bulk to grocery in 2016, cited labor costs as Thomsen.
Even the best-funded in- purple light that gives them stores, a conundrum if costs its biggest drag. Chicago provided some
door farming company on the look of a 3D movie aren’t in line. Google’s X, the search gi- $344,000 in construction
the planet — Plenty, which watched without glasses. Investment in indoor farm- ant’s secretive “moonshot grants since 2008 to The
has raised nearly $230 mil- Maturing plants are stuffed ing soared to $271 million factory,” killed its indoor Plant , a former pork pro-
lion so far — has embraced into columns where they last year, up from just $36 farming efforts because it 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. Associated Press “There needs to be.”q