The first round of indoor farming technology (mostly) met the harsh reality of expenses, took a nosedive and died.
But the second round of indoor tech is here, and the indoor farm market is booming.
In 2016 there were 2.3 million square feet of indoor farms worldwide, this area is expected to grow to up to 16.55 million square feet by 2021.
Some of it is vertical. Some of it is not. Some of it is grown under lights. Some still use the natural resource called the sun.
The two unifying factors —
🥬 Indoors
🍓Soilless
For about as many ways as there are to grow a head of lettuce (trust me, there’s a lot), there’s an indoor/vertical/hydroponic/aeroponic/LED/solar-powered/robotic/AI/partridge in a pear tree version of what ‘indoor farming’ can do.
✅In Containers — Freight Farms
✅Found in Cafeterias — Babylon MicroGreens
✅Grown In Your Home — FarmShelf
✅Harvested by Robots —Plenty
✅For Chefs — FarmOne
✅Uses Machine Learning — Bowery Farms
✅Founded by Elon Musk’s Brother — Square Roots
✅Featured in the World’s Largest Marriot Resort — HyCube by Kalera
✅Waters with Desalinated Ocean Water — SunDrop Farms
✅From Russia — InFarms
✅One Giant Greenhouse — AppHarvest
✅Sold on Airlines — AeroFarms
✅Used Windpower — Bright Farms
With yields reputed to be up to 350 times as much as similarly field-grown crops, indoor farming appears to be here to stay.
Had your aeroponically-grown, harvested-by-robots, salad today?