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<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:618px"><div class="image"><a href="/farmedhere-vertical-farming-2013-3#all-of-the-growing-is-done-inside-a-90000-square-foot-formerly-abandoned-chicago-warehouse-because-the-plants-are-stacked-on-top-of-each-other-there-is-actually-140000-square-feet-of-farming-space-1"></a></div><keyword id="1753175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="FarmedHere">FarmedHere</keyword></div>
FarmedHere's CEO Jolanta Hardej <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/farmedhere-vertical-farming-chicago-2013-3">runs the nation's largest indoor vertical farm</a>, which had its grand opening in Chicago this week. 
It's an unlikely move for Hardej, whose only experience working in <keyword id="6355165" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Agriculture">agriculture</keyword> was tending to her grandmother's farm in Europe as a child.
<a href="/farmedhere-vertical-farming-2013-3#all-of-the-growing-is-done-inside-a-90000-square-foot-formerly-abandoned-chicago-warehouse-because-the-plants-are-stacked-on-top-of-each-other-there-is-actually-140000-square-feet-of-farming-space-1">Take me inside the nation's largest indoor vertical farm &gt; </a>
The interior designer-turned-mortgage broker spent 15 years as a mortgage broker until the financial collapse of 2008: "My world crashed," she says.<a href="/farmedhere-vertical-farming-2013-3#all-of-the-growing-is-done-inside-a-90000-square-foot-formerly-abandoned-chicago-warehouse-because-the-plants-are-stacked-on-top-of-each-other-there-is-actually-140000-square-feet-of-farming-space-1"></a>
Hardej started reading books and attending seminars on <keyword id="551983" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vertical-farming">vertical farming</keyword>, a kind of urban farming that saves space by growing crops in flat beds stacked on top of each other, typically inside tall buildings.
A $100,000 loan from Whole Foods helped Hardej get her own vertical farm off the ground. The plants in her farm grow without soil, instead using mineral-rich water that comes from tanks filled with tilapia fish.
FarmedHere currently grows various types of basil and arugula, but has plans to experiment with other vegetables in the future.

Chicago Company Corners The Secret To Growing Vegetables Without Dirt 

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><keyword id="1753175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="FarmedHere">FarmedHere</keyword>The future of farming is literally growing up. Jolanta Hardej, CEO of FarmedHere, shows off organic basil grown at the nation's largest indoor vertical farm located in Chicago.</div>The concept of vertical farm "skyscrapers" was first imagined a little over a decade ago by <a href="http://www.verticalfarm.com/">Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier</a>. 
Growing up — not out — Despommier contends, is one solution to the impending global food crisis and reducing energy consumption.
By 2050, the World Health Organization estimates that <a href="http://www.who.int/gho/urban_health/situation_trends/urban_population_growth_text/en/">seven out of 10 people will live in a city</a>, while global population is expected to hit 9 billion.
The United Nations projects that to feed all those extra mouths would require farmers to produce <a href="http://www.fao.org/nr/solaw/main-messages/en/">70 percent more food globally by 2050</a>, compared to 2009 levels. 
Unfortunately, fields don't magically expand as the population gets bigger, and most of the world's available arable land is already being used. 
Climate change, contributing to floods and droughts, is likely to reduce the amount of cultivatable land even further in the future. 
Vertical farms, a space-saving technique that allows plants to be grown in stacked layers, one on top of the other, has been presented as a sustainable answer to the world's run on land and water resources. 
At least that's how Jolanta Hardej, the CEO of the nation's largest indoor vertical farm, <a href="http://farmedhere.com/">FarmedHere</a>, sees it. 
[<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/farmedhere-vertical-farming-2013-3">See our gallery of FarmedHere</a>]
Vertical farms typically rely on hydroponics, the method of growing plants in nutrient-rich water instead of soil. FarmedHere, which celebrated its grand opening this week, uses something called aquaponics, which combines hydroponics with raising fish, or what's known as aquaculture. 
The seeds of basil, arugula, and other leafy greens are placed in small baskets made of coconut shavings, called coconut cores. The seeds germinate under artificial (compact-fluorescent) light. Once the plants are about two to three inches tall, they are transferred to a vertical grow system, made up of five to six stacked beds. Each basket is placed in a foam float so that the roots of the plants are submerged in the water.
<div class="image-container float_left" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div>FarmedHereGiant tanks filled with tilapia provide nutrient-rich water for the plants.</div>The water comes from four 800-gallon tanks containing around 800 tilapia. The water, rich with fish waste, is filtered and clarified before it's fed to the plants. The water then goes back to the fish tanks in a closed-loop system. This enables the facility to conserve 97 percent of fresh water per farm acre compared to regular <keyword id="6355165" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Agriculture">agriculture</keyword>, according to Hardej. (Once the fish are full-grown they are also sold at market).
Because the lights are never turned off, the growing process continues through the night. As a result, FarmedHere's produce has a much shorter growing cycle than traditional agriculture.
Leafy greens grow in 14 to 16 days, whereas traditionally farmed arugula takes 50 days, Hardej claims. Similarly, basil's growing cycle is 20 to 22 days compared to the 48- to 60-day growing cycle at a traditional farm.
[<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/farmedhere-vertical-farming-2013-3">See our gallery of FarmedHere</a>]
"We have a 99 percent crop success, whereas traditional farming typically has 75 percent success," Hardej said. Per equivalent unit of land, "yields are 20 times bigger than yields of traditional agriculture." 
A greater output per acre of land is not the only obvious benefit of growing vegetables, fruits, and grains inside of tall buildings. A climate-controlled <keyword id="6356826" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="environment">environment</keyword> means farmers don't have to worry about weather hazards, like deep freezes or drought. Crops don't have be doused in herbicides and pesticides because insects aren't problem. And, because urban farms are inherently set up to reduce the distance between where food is grown and the consumers that buy and eat it, transportation costs and carbon footprint are markedly lower. 
Hardej, for example, tries not to sell her produce in supermarkets that are farther than 20 to 25 miles from the facility. 
The former mortgage broker expects to produce 300,000 pounds of leafy greens by the end of 2013 and 1 million pounds of leafy greens by the following year. All of this is being conducted in a 90,000 square-foot converted Chicago warehouse (which converts to 140,000 feet of farming space). The facility is only at 20 percent capacity right now, with around 25 full-time farmers, but it won't stay that way for long. 
Eventually, Hardej expects to plant roots in urban areas throughout the country, from Los Angeles to New York City. 
Still, <keyword id="551983" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="vertical-farming">vertical farming</keyword> is long-off from replacing regular farming. <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/11/the-vertical-farming-scam/">Stan Cox, the author of "Any Way You Slice It: The Past, Present, and Future of Rationing," points out</a> that vegetables (not counting potatoes since they can't grow in water) make up only 1.6 percent of our total cultivated land. 
If we were to convert all horizontal farming to vertical at equivalent yield per acre, we would need the floorspace of 105,000 Empire State Buildings. "And that would still leave more than 98 percent of our crop production still out in the fields," he notes.

Where Farming Is Headed, We Don't Need Soil 

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Insider Inc.Inside Bowery Farming's warehouse farm in Kearny, New Jersey.</div></div></div><ul><li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/amazon">Amazon</a> veteran Brian Donato has joined <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/bowery-farming">Bowery</a>, a vertical farming startup that grows greens indoors without natural sunlight or soil. At Amazon, Donato managed the company's automated fulfillment operations.</li><li>Donato was hired to help Bowery scale up, according to Bloomberg.</li><li>Other vertical farming companies have faced challenges around energy efficiency, venture capital funding, and scalability.</li></ul>Brian Donato - an Amazon veteran who integrated robots into the tech giant's warehouse workforce - is joining Bowery, an indoor farming startup focused on automating the growing process. Donato will lead Bowery's efforts to scale up, Bloomberg's Olivia Zaleski <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-29/an-amazon-veteran-joins-indoor-farming-startup?mc_cid=fbee9d955e&amp;mc_eid=aafe86284f">reports</a>.At Amazon, Donato ran Amazon Home Services, which matches cleaners, plumbers, and more with homeowners. Before that, he managed Amazon's distribution centers (where robots and humans compile orders for delivery), and Amazon Fresh and Pantry food-delivery services.In many ways, Donato's new role will mirror his responsibilities at Amazon. Since Bowery's inception nearly two years ago, the startup has focused heavily on automating most of the growing and harvesting process. Unlike traditional outdoor farms, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bowery-farms-indoor-farm-grows-365-days-a-year-less-water-2018-2">Bowery grows greens under LEDs</a> (which mimic natural sunlight) inside a giant warehouse in Kearny, New Jersey. Instead of soil, crops sprout in nutrient-rich water beds on trays stacked from the floor to the ceiling. Sensors in the trays track how the plants are doing in real time.In June 2017, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bowery-vertical-farm-robots-post-organic-greens-funding-google-2017-6">Bowery raised $20 million</a> in Series A funding, co-led by General Catalyst and GGV Capital ​with participation​ from GV (formerly Google Ventures). Co-founder Irving Fain previously <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bowery-vertical-farm-robots-post-organic-greens-funding-google-2017-6">told</a> Business Insider that the company will use the funding to build more farms (first in the New York metropolitan area and later in other cities across the US), move beyond greens to other crops, and hire more people.Bowery is currently testing over 80 different varieties of greens, including baby kale, mustard greens, and arugula. Out of those 80, Bowery is selling six types at <a href="http://boweryfarming.com/our-produce">select Whole Foods </a>and Foragers stores in the tri-state area. A five-ounce package costs $3.99, which is about the price of most organic greens.Like most vertical farming startups, Bowery has been largely dependent on venture capital to build and operate its farms. Others projects haven't been as successful. <a href="https://urbanverticalfarmingproject.com/2014/08/08/the-first-vertical-farm-showdown-why-you-need-to-know-whats-happening-in-singapore/">Panasonic</a> and Google have abandoned vertical farming projects, and in 2017, FarmedHere - once the largest vertical farm in the US - <a href="https://urbanverticalfarmingproject.com/2017/01/19/one-time-largest-vertical-farm-shuts-down/">shut down</a>.The nearly decade-old indoor farming industry has faced several challenges, especially around energy costs and scalability - making it harder to compete in regions where cheap vegetables are abundant. According to <a href="https://civileats.com/2018/07/02/can-vertical-farms-reap-their-harvest-its-anyones-bet/">a recent analysis</a> from Civil Eats, a 30,000-square-foot vertical farm in metro New York City spends around $216,000 annually for electricity and another $120,000 on HVAC systems. If the industry can manage to expand, find a more energy-efficient alternative to LEDs, and automate more of the human labor, those operational costs may decline.Bowery Farm is now working on its next farm in the New York metropolitan area . In the future, Fain said he hopes to expand internationally. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/celluveyor-conveyor-belt-move-direction-packages-warehouses-factories-2018-6">This conveyor belt can move in any direction</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

An executive behind Amazon's massive warehouse fulfillment operation has moved to a vertical farming startup

The fat years for farmers are over; thank God for taxpayers
ON A grey day in December Johnny Anderes, the head chef at The Kitchen, a trendy restaurant in Chicago, is checking out a farm in an unlikely place.
FarmedHere, which claims to be one of America's largest "indoor vertical farms", occupies 90,000 square feet of former warehouse in a run-down Chicago suburb. It grows three types of basil, baby kale, micro-radish and arugula (rocket) in vertically stacked beds, lit with LEDs and fed with water from tanks of hormone-free tilapia.
Mark Thoman of FarmedHere says the farm will be able to produce 1m pounds of leafy greens a year when it reaches full capacity. He concedes that his ultra-local, organic produce is costlier than food grown on the Midwest's megafarms. But wealthy foodies don't mind. "We have more demand than we can supply," he says.
Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University sees two trends in American farming. One is the growth of local microfarms for picky posh people. The other is the success of high-tech big farms that produce cheap food for everyone else, as well as plant-based fuels and chemicals.
Farmers have just had five fat years during which crops such as maize (corn), soyabeans, sugar cane, cotton, rice and potatoes have generated record profits. Now the demand for (corn and sugar-based) ethanol is stagnant, the Chinese economy is slowing and the supply of most crops was bigger than demand this year. "We are now entering a boom-moderation period," declares Chris Hurt at Purdue University in Indiana.
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts that net farm income will be $96.9 billion in 2014, down 23% from 2013. The forecast for this year is the lowest since 2010, but still 15% higher than the previous ten-year average. Income from crops is expected to fall 12.3%, mainly because of weak prices for corn and soyabeans.
Many farmers, however, will compensate by raising more livestock, for which 2014 was a bumper year. According to the USDA, income from animal farming will increase by 14% this year, largely due to record prices for beef and milk. Low crop prices mean cheaper animal feed, which is excellent news if you have pigs to fatten.

Analysts expect crop prices to remain low this year, next year and maybe even longer. A bushel (25kg) of corn now costs $3.81, down from $8.49 in August 2012. This year, thanks to the taxpayers who were held down and fleeced by the latest farm bill, farmers will receive up to $5 billion in subsidies through a new model of crop insurance.
No matter how rich they are, they get paid if their crops fail or prices fall too far. The payouts "will certainly be much higher than the $2 billion in direct payments that farmers received last year", says Vincent Smith of Montana University, who thinks crop farmers should buy their own insurance without subsidies.
Crop insurers will adjust rates to the new crop prices, so the crop-insurance bonanza won't last for ever. Happily for farmers, they will still get subsidies through the commodity-insurance programme, another provision of the farm bill that protects farmers against "multi-year risk".
Plenty of farmers also built up reserves during the boom years. The average wealth of a farm household is four to five times that of a non-farm household. At least 50 billionaires received farm subsidies between 1995 and 2002, according to the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog.
One measure of the health of the farm business is the price of farmland, which rose sharply in the Midwest after 2009 but has now settled down, thanks to the fall in crop prices, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Fields in Indiana and Michigan became a little costlier in the year to October, but those in Illinois and Iowa got cheaper, and there was no change in Wisconsin. This could mean leaner days ahead. Time to hire more lobbyists?
Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist&#xa0;

Here's What Happens Now That American Farming's Fat Years Are Over

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Crop One HoldingsCrop One Holdings' vertical farm in Massachusetts.</div></div></div><ul><li>Crop One Holdings, a Silicon Valley food startup, and Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC), one of the world's largest airline catering operators, plan build a 130,000-square-foot vertical farm in Dubai.</li><li>Vertical farms grow crops indoors and year-round without natural sunlight or soil. The facility will be the largest of its kind, and will produce 6,000 pounds of crops daily.</li><li>The greens and herbs will be used for in-flight meals at Dubai International Airport, the world's largest by international passenger traffic.</li></ul>When passengers board their flights at Dubai International Airport, most are served in-flight meals that include salads or greens atop sandwiches. These crops usually come from traditional, outdoor farms in the United Arab Emirates.By 2020, flights taking off from the airport will serve greens and herbs grown from a more high-tech source. Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC), one of the world's largest airline catering operators, and Crop One Holdings, a San Francisco Bay Area food startup, are building a massive vertical farm to supply crops for in-flight meals.EKFC provides catering for Emirates Airlines and all other airlines at Dubai International Airport, which is the world's largest airport by passenger traffic.Located in a Dubai, the 130,000-square-foot indoor farm will produce up to 6,000 pounds of greens and herbs every day. Unlike traditional outdoor farms, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bowery-farms-indoor-farm-grows-365-days-a-year-less-water-2018-2">Crop One grows crops year-round under LEDs</a> (which mimic natural sunlight) located inside climate-controlled rooms, which are each set to optimal temperature and oxygen levels depending on the crop. Instead of soil, greens sprout in nutrient-rich water beds on trays stacked from the floor to the ceiling. Sensors in the trays track how the plants are doing in real time.The two companies will start construction in November 2018, and start delivering crops to Emirates Flight Catering's customers, including 105 airlines and 25 airport lounges, in December 2019. Crop One currently operates a vertical farm in Millis, Massachusetts, and delivers to Boston metro area grocery stores under the <a href="https://freshboxfarms.com/">Fresh Box Farms</a> brand name. The new farm in Dubai will surpass the size of the current world's largest vertical farm, which is operated by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-aerofarms-worlds-largest-vertical-farm-2016-8">AeroFarms.</a> The facility grows greens inside a 69,000-square-foot warehouse in Newark, New Jersey. AeroFarms and other big indoor farming companies mostly sell their products to supermarkets, but Crop One believes greater opportunity may lie within airline partnerships.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Crop One HoldingsA farmer works inside Crop One Holdings' vertical farm in Massachusetts.</div></div></div>According to Sonia Lo, Crop One's CEO, airlines tend to have a more reliable demand than grocers."Airlines are attractive, because they give our farms anchor customers that have a predictable volume and price," she told Business Insider. "Most vertical farmers can't address the food-service market, because they simply can't make money doing so."Lo is referring to the economic challenges that a number of vertical farming companies have faced in the US. (<a href="https://urbanverticalfarmingproject.com/2014/08/08/the-first-vertical-farm-showdown-why-you-need-to-know-whats-happening-in-singapore/">Panasonic</a> and Google have abandoned vertical farming projects, and FarmedHere - once the largest vertical farm in the US - <a href="https://urbanverticalfarmingproject.com/2017/01/19/one-time-largest-vertical-farm-shuts-down/">shut down last year</a>.) Since vertical farms rely on large amounts of electricity from the LEDs, high energy costs can make it harder for them to compete in regions where cheap produce is abundant.While many vertical farming companies depend on venture-capital, the majority of Crop One's funding comes from private equity, Lo said.Crop One could find more success abroad - but only if its new Dubai farm manages to scale as promised, lowering production costs. The company also plans to expand domestically in the US. In coming years, it will launch two farms in the Northeast and one in the Southwest, selling to nearby retailers and food-service customers. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-hold-in-your-pee-too-long-2018-6">What happens when you hold in your pee for too long</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "FarmedHere" and got 6 results

Chicago Company Corners The Secret To Growing Vegetables Without Dirt

Dina Spector

Where Farming Is Headed, We Don't Need Soil

Dina Spector

An executive behind Amazon's massive warehouse fulfillment operation has moved to a vertical farming startup

Leanna Garfield

Here's What Happens Now That American Farming's Fat Years Are Over

The Economist

Dubai is getting the world's largest vertical farm - and it will grow produce for the world's largest international airport

Leanna Garfield

A futuristic farming startup raised $260 million from Jeff Bezos and SoftBank on the promise of upending agriculture. Insiders are raising questions.

Erin Brodwin

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