Food For Thought: Facts and Fables About Vertical Farming

A New Era In Virginia Farming

My older brother, a stellar NASA engineer for over 50 years and protagonist in KD for A5 steak adventures, sent me an article about vertical farming in Virginia. Apparently Plenty,  one of the big players in the soil-less world, is opening an agricultural development center and vertical farming warehouse  in an abandoned 800-acre site that formerly housed a cigarette production facility. This techno-park currently hosts an Amazon fulfillment center, a Niagara bottling plant, and a data collection center run by Digital Fortress for Capital One. 

  Meadowville Technology Park is currently publicly owned and serviced by Virginia utilities. Companies that choose it have access to fast-track permitting, financial incentive possibilities (determined on an individual case basis) and is near a 643,000-person workforce in the Richmond Metropolitan area. Prevailing wage levels are moderate, but Meadowville-area employees have above-average levels of education and skill. Meadowville-area employees work in a business-friendly environment rich with training opportunities. Ancillary employment costs, such as workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance, are among the lowest in the nation, according to their website. 

The Perfect Answer

A famous food personality would say this is a good thing. Clearly, relying on monocrops with repeated dousing of chemically based fertilizers and pesticides is not a long-term solution for any nation’s food supply. Vertical farming has two iterations – hydroponic and soil-based –   the soil-based design is not used much because dirt makes the trays heavier and thus harder to manipulate.  But the technology definitely provides an alternative to field-grown crops. And it has been a darling of investment funds and touted as the Second Coming,  even though some of the companies both here and in Europe have declared bankruptcy or are moving their operations to the Mid East. There are a few things, though, that should be examined and improved upon as this technology moves forward.

I buy hydroponic and soil-based indoor farmed produce along with field-grown fruits and vegetables  – usually organic. Right now hydroponically successful crops are salad greens and herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers, green beans and peas, peppers and strawberries.  Apparently the nutrient content is the same or possibly higher in the vertical-farmed produce in comparison to field-grown produce. But taste and texture are more robust in the field-grown produce than in those grown in hydroponic solutions. Some research has indicated that it is because the root systems in vertical farming are not as dense and vigorous as for plants grown in organic soil. The difference perhaps between a root relaxing in a nutrient rich Jacuzzi and one having to work its way through dirt to reach water and food. 

Organic Label=$$

This brings up another issue, which is the permission by the USDA for hydroponically grown produce to be labeled organic. The lobbying by investing groups to gain the USDA organic label for hydroponics was fierce and successful. This is not allowed in the EU. So when you buy the Dread Driscoll organic strawberries, for example, they are grown hydroponically. In fact, that is one of the crops that Plenty has planned at its new Virginia operation. Since I buy both (because I like a bit of red in my fruit salads during  the JanFebs*)  I can tell you that field-grown strawberries I bought from Ochoa Produce in Alexandria were tastier, more perfumed than the Dread Driscoll ones. In its favor, though, so far GMO is not part of the hydroponic equation. Still, I protest that hydroponic is not organic farming. You are not making the earth of these crops richer in organic matter. You have plastic trays and other paraphernalia that have to be disposed of or super-cleaned. Mother Nature is not smiling. 

Basically, vertical farming requires the planting of specific seeds in a cube made of material such as coconut coir and suspending it in a controlled and nutrient-dense water solution. As they grow into seedlings, they are transferred to a series of  larger cubicles and trays.  The plants are supplied with red, blue and white LED lights (a popular ratio is  8 red, 4 blue, 2 white).The red lights provide the key to photosynthesis and flowering; the blue stimulates chlorophyll production and growth. The white lights provide a more general imitation of sunlight. Although the company hype is that these crops are infestation free, that is not quite true. The plants are subject to different bugs and microbes, which have to be carefully monitored and, yes, treated with some form of pesticide. 

Not Your Field Hand

 Moreover, vertical farms require a more technologically educated farm hand. And regardless of what Meadowville Park says about employment costs, newly educated farm technicians require a higher salary than a farm laborer.  And finally, whereas sunlight is free,  the electricity needed for vertical farming, whether it comes from sustainable resources or otherwise, is simply staggering in cost. Start-up costs and depreciation of robotic equipment, plus the considerable energy expense and, yes, much higher labor costs make a vertical farm tomato cost four to six times more than a field one…at this moment. 

These costs are what made many vertical farms crash –Aerofarms, Appharvest, Upwardfarms to name just three. This is a neat technology, but it is limited in what it can grow (I am the only one in my family who rejoices in the abundance of salads).  It needs time to develop a workforce that is conversant in technological fields,  and it needs to lower its energy costs substantially. It does provide a lot of veg with less water and space, and there is nothing wrong with a tomato being labeled hydroponic or vertical-farm raised.  Just don’t label it organic. 

*the endlessly dreary era after Christmas holidays