Edible Garden AG Incorporated (Edible Garden) has announced the launch of GreenThumb 2.0, an enhanced version of the Company’s proprietary, cloud-based, GreenThumb greenhouse management and demand planning system, which provides the ability to manage goods throughout the entire supply chain. Mr. Jim Kras, Chief Executive Officer of Edible Garden, stated, “I am pleased to announce the launch of GreenThumb 2.0, the next generation of our advanced, state-of-the-art, greenhouse management system. With an improved degree of automation, this upgraded system offers us a substantial enhancement in dynamic forecasting abilities, making the most efficient use of real-time data. This more precise predictive…
Author: Matt Peskett
Matt Peskett
Matt has worked in digital publishing and media for over two decades across the science, technology, food and agricultural sectors. With a lifelong passion for growing his own food, Matt also produces 300kg giant pumpkins for exhibition and volunteers with the Royal Horticultural Society. He has a sizeable horticultural social media presence and has been a finalist in the Garden Media Guild's blog of the year and social media awards. Matt also dabbles in start-up investment with companies like Small Robot Company, Drone Ag and RootWave.
It’s a little over 12 months since Scottish agritech firm Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) announced a new strategic partnership agreement with Long Island-based CubicAcres. This week CubicAcres has completed a US$3.7 million funding round that will enable the firms to progress with the construction of a new 11,000 square foot production facility. Last year IGS stated that construction of the farm would begin on the Long Island site towards the end of 2022 with the farm ‘fully operational by early 2023’. Clearly those target dates weren’t able to be realised but the new plan sees possible production levels revised upwards…
UK vertical farming pioneer – GrowUp Farms, has become the first vertical farm to achieve grade A for ‘plant to plate processes’ in its first BRCGS audit. The certification covers the growing, harvesting and packing processes at the company’s Pepperness farm in Kent. BRCGS certification has set the benchmark for nearly 25 years for food safety, quality and operations. Adopted by more than 22,000 sites in more than 130 countries, the standard is accepted by 70% of the top 10 global retailers, 60% of the top 10 quick-service restaurants, and 50% of the top 25 manufacturers. GrowUp Farms is also…
These are difficult times for vertical farming companies but the people at Aerofarms are working hard to get the business back on its feet following its Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing in June. With fresh plans to sell company assets to a newly formed investment entity – ‘AF NewCo Inc’, the business also continues to increase shipments of microgreens from its indoor vertical farm in Danville, Virginia. Asset Purchase Agreement On Monday, July 10th 2023, Aerofarms signed an Asset Purchase Agreement (APA) with AF NewCo, Inc., a newly formed entity owned by a group of existing Aerofarms investors including Grosvenor Food…
The tradition of enjoying strawberries and cream at the Wimbledon tennis championships dates back to the late 19th century and has since become an iconic part of the event. Today 1.92 million strawberries, or rather 140,000 punnets, are consumed during the tournament, along with 7,000 litres (1,850 gallons) of cream. Agri-tech innovators, Fischer Farms, have revealed that trials of vertically farmed strawberries and soft fruits are now underway at their dedicated research and development farm in Litchfield, UK. The team at Fischer Farms has been cultivating a number of soft fruit crops in a biosecure, controlled environment, as part of…
The 52-storey high Growth Tower technology of Intelligent Growth Solutions has been featured on Scotland’s STV, with IGS Chief Executive Officer, David Farquhar, answering some questions at the firm’s Crop Research Centre in Dundee. On the question of energy viability, a very hot topic right now, Farquhar said “Yes we use more electricity than traditional farming, but we’re increasingly working with our customers to co-locate these farms with things like solar farms or wind farms and when you do that, the economics changes quite radically.” Watch the full video above. IGS was formed in 2013, its purpose to bring indoor…
Canada’s container farming specialist FarmAnywhere has announced a significant leap forward in its production capacity. The pioneering agricultural tech company has successfully ramped up its manufacturing operations to churn out four of its Universal Lite Farms every month, bringing total output capacity to an impressive 48 container farms per annum. Gabriel Zarafonitis, CEO of FarmAnywhere, is very pleased with the company’s achievement: “This is an incredible milestone for us, and I couldn’t be more proud of the entire FarmAnywhere team for this accomplishment.” he said. “We are one step closer to bringing affordable, hyper-local container farms to the masses. The…
Indoor agriculture’s plant breeding specialist – Vindara, has been acquired from Kalera by private equity investment manager Sandton Capital Partners, for an undisclosed sum. The first company to deliver genetic seed varieties bred explicitly for use in high-tech vertical indoor farming operations, Vindara utilises deep machine learning and analytics to develop tailor-made seeds in a compressed timeframe of only 12-18 months. Based in Orlando, Florida, Vindara has assembled an industry leading database of worldwide produce, tracking thousands of varieties and looking at everything from physical measurements to texture and flavour. Combining advanced technology with state-of-the-art research and development facilities the…
The family behind Australia’s largest family-owned foodservice distributor, PFD Food Services, has taken a major investment stake in automated indoor vertical farming technology company Stacked Farm, bringing Stacked Farm’s total capital raised to A$98 million. Tayside Investments Australia has become one of the largest investors in Gold Coast-headquartered Stacked Farm alongside US-based Magnetar Capital, with Tayside Director and PFD Food Services’ departing CEO Kerry Smith joining the board. Ms Smith has joined the Stacked Farm board alongside another new appointee, Bob East, Chairman of KKR-backed Australian Venue Co and newly appointed chairman of AFL team Gold Coast Suns. Ms Smith…
In 2020, Indiana-based Vertical Acres signed a deal to acquire seventeen cultivators, three propagators, and one fertigator from Canada’s CubicFarm Systems Corp, at a cost of C$3.8M / US$2.9m. Two and a half years (and one pandemic) later, that automated, controlled-environment growing technology is now fully commissioned at Vertical Acres. CubicFarms’ patented technology will enable Vertical Acres to grow and distribute commercial quantities of fresh produce for their region. Vertical Acres will initially focus on growing and harvesting a variety of lettuce and microgreen crops, with each module capable of growing over 100,000 heads of lettuce and 12,500 pounds of…
