Delta, BC – The Village Farms family came together to raise awareness for the Run for the Cure while exceeding their goal by raising more than $10,000 last week for the Canadian Cancer Society. In addition, Village Farms took home the Pepsi Corporate Spirit Award as the top fundraising corporate team at the CIBC Run for the Cure event on September 28, 2018 in Surrey, BC. The Canadian Cancer Society CIBC Run for the Cure is a 5k or 1k walk or run that raises funds for Canadian Cancer Society (CCS). It is the largest single-day, volunteer-led event in Canada…
Author: urbanagnews
Dr. Joel L. Cuello, Professor of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Arizona brings us a TEDx talk on artificial intelligence as it can relate to food production for the growing global population. Our planet sorely needs the help of artificial intelligence to achieve the increase in food production that our growing population demands in the face of scarce resources. Vertical farming is already applying artificial intelligence and is sustainable with renewable energy.
Moleaer, the leading manufacturer of industrial-scale nanobubble generators, announces that the Big Tex Urban Farms has installed its Boost nanobubble generator to increase crop production. Throughout the growing season, Big Tex Urban Farms donates all its produce to local Dallas area organizations. Big Tex Urban Farms wanted to incorporate an innovative solution that would help them grow more food per square foot to provide more produce to their local community. After evaluating several options, they chose Moleaer’s nanobubble generator. The generator boosts the deep-water culture’s dissolved oxygen content through oxygen-enriched nanobubbles. When roots are exposed to oxygen- enriched nanobubbles combined…
Green Sense Farms Holdings, Inc., today announced the formation of a joint venture with RUFEPA a Spanish greenhouse builder with over 25 years of turnkey project experience. The joint venture will focus on building combined indoor vertical farm and greenhouse projects for third parties to sustainably grow a wide range of vegetables using less land, water and energy- to feed a growing global population. This is the first of its kind. “Using indoor vertical farms to grow leafy greens and healthy, disease free seedlings that can be directly transplanted into a greenhouse to grow…
Survey to provide insight on emerging indoor farming trends and challenges now live. BROOKLYN, N.Y. Agrilyst today released their third annual State of Indoor Farming Survey. This survey will give Agrilyst and growers insight on emerging trends and challenges in the greenhouse and vertical farming industries. Last year, Agrilyst received over 150 responses from indoor farmers for the 2017 State of Indoor Farming report. The report shared insight on the benefits and challenges for growers. According to the report, 25% of growers responded that their biggest challenge is capital – from access to working capital to expansion capital to cost…
Join three CEA scientists (Chieri Kubota, Erik Runkle and Cary Mitchell) who are organizing an online monthly forum series, called ‘Indoor Ag Science Café’. This online forum has been designed to discuss the science and technologies that can contribute to indoor controlled environment agriculture (AKA vertical farms). According to Chieri, “we wish to make the forum develop as a non-competitive, informal communication platform among indoor agriculture industries”. Please contact Chieri Kubota (kubota.10@osu.edu) if you would like to join the Café. The most recent topic presented by Erik Runkle at the Café is now available:
GLASE gears up for its first meeting: Guidelines for new Controlled Environment Agriculture energy-efficient technology adoption November 5, 2018 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Statler Hotel, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Lighting control is the last frontier in controlled environment agriculture. Well-designed horticultural lighting systems can reduce energy use and increase profits for greenhouses and indoor farms. GLASE is bringing together New York Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) growers with local utility companies, USDA officials and service providers to provide CEA growers with all the resources available for energy-efficient lighting and control systems technology adoption. CEA growers attending the conference will have the…
VegBed increases mat weight and introduces their growing medium in roll form New York, NY – Sept 10, 2018 VegBed.com, the leader in innovative hydroponic growing medium, announced they released updated versions of their popular bamboo fiber microgreen mats. The company has been working closely with microgreens farmers to help design the new product. The mat weight has been increased from 160gsm to 200gsm to allow for even more water absorption. The normal 10” x 20” mat will be able to hold about 10X’s its weight in water. The new roll option now offers the bamboo fiber with dimensions of…
Article by The Upstart University Team The Farm Bill is moving in Congress and could impact your farm. As you may have learned in our previous post, Congress typically rewrites the Farm Bill every five years and is currently in the process of writing a new Farm Bill with the goal of passing it by the end of September. The next two and a half weeks are a critical time for farmers who want to inform the decisions made around this bill. So what’s in it for you? Each Farm Bill contains resources for farmers of all kinds, but the current bill…
From the Coalition for Sustainable Organics The USDA has published the pre-meeting materials on their website for the Fall 2018 National Organic Standards Board meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota to be held from October 24-26. The Discussion Documents and Formal Proposals do NOT include anything specific to greenhouse, container, hydroponic, aeroponic or aquaponic production systems. Those topics remain on the inactive work agenda of the National Organic Standards Board in spite of calls from an NOSB member to place the topic back on the active agenda. In addition to the review of materials for the National List, the NOSB will review other topics including…
Article by Amy Storey, Upstart Farmers In a recent survey conducted by Upstart University, 70% of respondents stated that they were unsure of whether the Farm Bill would impact their [future] business. Yet ironically all respondents plan on investing in some kind of energy-efficient equipment in the next year, whether that’s lighting, HVAC, pumps, or motors. These two facts conflict with each other! Why? Because the Farm Bill directly influences how billions of government dollars are allocated —and that includes the programs that can help farmers launch or scale their farms. In other words: the Farm Bill will affect your business more than you think!…
Because of unexpected scheduling and weather concerns, the Virginia Smart Farming Conference on Using Controlled Environment Agriculture has been postponed until March 5, 2019. Our team is extremely sorry for this inconvenience but is continuing its work and is excited for what will be delivered when we gather in the Richmond area on March 5, 2019. Contact us to receive registration information as soon as it is available or watch for updates on our website, https://www.hort.vt.edu/sfcea/. The conference offers both academic and industry experts exploring the latest advances in vertical farming, protected culture, sensor technology, lighting, computer vision, and automation. Hear from…
Greenhouse Training Online courses, including Disease Management, offered by University of Florida IFAS Extension (UF) have received a boost with an education grant from the American Floral Endowment (AFE). The four-week courses in English and Spanish are designed for growers or technical managers in the US and other countries, and have been completed by over 1,000 growers. The education grant from AFE will help cover the cost of translating course materials into Spanish. This commitment to diversity training is critical. Even though approximately 80% of agricultural workers in the U.S. are of Hispanic origin and are Spanish‐speaking, there is a…
GLASE Webinar A proposed horticultural lighting label On September 7, 2-3pm EST, GLASE presents this webinar which will be held by Dr. AJ Both from Rutgers University and Ryan Siddon from Intertek. Recent advances in light-emitting diode (LED) technology now provide the horticultural industry with multiple lighting options. However, growers are often unable to compare technologies and LED options due to insufficient data on lamp performance metrics. As a result, researchers are now proposing a standardized product label that facilitates the comparison of lamps across manufacturers. Dr. A.J. Both from Rutgers University and Ryan Siddon from Intertek will talk about…