4 in-store farms offering hyper-local produce to shoppers
Retailers from independents to nationwide chains are addressing COVID-19 shortages and increasing transparency with indoor farms.
Tight on space? That’s not a problem at North Market in Minneapolis, which recently installed a hydroponic indoor farm in a shipping container in the store’s parking lot. The Freight Farm has the growing space equivalent to the size of a football field, but uses just 5 gallons of water per week to produce lettuce, greens, herbs and veggies. The hydroponic growing method includes custom LEDs to emit intense light that encourages growth without sunlight. It’s also climate-controlled to recreate an ideal spring day, every day.
Hydroponics isn’t the only game in town. Geoponics, or growing plants in soil, brings conventional farming indoors. Evergreen Kosher Market in Monsey, New York, recently debuted a 20-foot-high wall farm from Vertical Field, offering pesticide-free and Star-K Kosher Certified produce year round. Vertical Field’s soil-based program can grow hundreds of types of crops without pesticides or specialized training. As an alternative to a living wall, the company’s Vertical Field can be placed in either a 20-foot or 40-foot container equipped with advanced sensors that provide a controlled environment to constantly monitor, irrigate and fertilize crops throughout each growth stage.
New York City’s Whole Foods Market Manhattan West location recently unveiled a custom-designed, 32-square-foot structure from Farm.One that holds 150 blue spice basil plant sites on three growing levels. Previously focused on restaurants, Farm.One is expanding its indoor mini-farms to retail locations nationwide, and is currently looking for new partners. These farms are capable of offering as many as 700 varieties of hydroponic-grown crops (retailers can choose a variety or just one, as is the case with Whole Foods), allowing even the most urban locations to optimize space in support of clean growing methods.
At the end of 2019, supermarket giant Kroger partnered with Infarm, a European firm, to install indoor living produce farms at two of its Washington locations. The vertical farms offer modular options for retailers who want to offer self-sufficient and fresh produce. At Kroger shoppers can choose from nine varieties of lettuce and herbs sold in bunches. This is one of the latest initiatives the retailer has taken to follow through with its Zero Hunger, Zero Waste social impact plan that aims to end hunger in local communities and eliminate waste company-wide by 2025.
At the end of 2019, supermarket giant Kroger partnered with Infarm, a European firm, to install indoor living produce farms at two of its Washington locations. The vertical farms offer modular options for retailers who want to offer self-sufficient and fresh produce. At Kroger shoppers can choose from nine varieties of lettuce and herbs sold in bunches. This is one of the latest initiatives the retailer has taken to follow through with its Zero Hunger, Zero Waste social impact plan that aims to end hunger in local communities and eliminate waste company-wide by 2025.
COVID-19 has thrown the food industry for a loop, and not just because consumers’ eating habits have changed drastically. Border closures and quarantines have disrupted the global food supply chain and, as a result, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that access to food is becoming limited, especially in places where the virus is prevalent or where significant food insecurity already existed. Plus, thanks to reoccuring E. coli and listeria outbreaks, consumers were wary of their pre-packaged leafy greens even before the pandemic.
Now, retailers from independent stores to nationwide chains are taking matters into their own hands by offering shoppers fresh produce sourced directly from their own stores’ indoor farms—no rooftop necessary. Click through this gallery to learn more about four retailer pioneers in the indoor farming world.
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