With the United States as its fastest growing market, Scotland’s premier vertical farming tech company Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) has announced that Loveland, Colorado will be home to its new North American headquarters as the firm continues its expansion. In a statement the company said that opening a base of operations in Loveland will allow it to better support North American customers. “The forward-looking approach to economic development within the city of Loveland and the state of Colorado fits perfectly with Intelligent Growth Solutions’ purpose of working with growers to help deliver sustainable food security,” said David Farquhar, CEO of…
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.
Two large-scale vertical farms have been created on campus at America’s University of Georgia (UGA) in part due to a new partnership between the Ferrarezi Lab in UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) and Agrify – a company that produces proprietary microenvironment-controlled vertical farming units. The two new UGA growing rooms will allow researchers to complete replicated trials, testing two to three different factors on each plant. Current research projects in the vertical farms include comparing the performance of different hydroponic growing systems in lettuce and strawberries, comparing plant response and resource utilization across multiple fertilizer management strategies…
America’s only soil-based, indoor farming company – Soli Organic Inc. has today announced plans to build a high-tech, automated indoor farm and co-located packing facility in the Brooks community in San Antonio, Texas. The firm previously announced new organic indoor farms in the Seattle area and in Anderson County, South Carolina. This new announcement follows on from last month’s news that the firm had closed a Series D funding round totalling nearly US$125 million to fund the continued build-out of additional large, high-tech, soil-based indoor farms. With plans on adding a total of fifteen new farms in strategic locations across…
It’s been a decade since Freight Farms debuted the first vertical hydronic farm, built inside an intermodal shipping container. Today, ten years on, and now the world’s leading manufacturer of container farms, the firm announced a US$17.5M Series B3 funding round. Freight Farms develops vertical hydroponic farms in shipping containers, with the goal of creating resilient and self-sufficient communities that can grow fresh, local, and healthy food 365 days a year. As a provider of farms for independent purchase and ownership, with containers currently operated by customers across 39 countries, the company has created the largest connected network of farms…
At COP 27 in Egypt, Infarm – the world’s fastest-growing vertical farming company, announced that it has successfully grown wheat in an indoor farm without soil or chemical pesticides and using much less water when compared with open field farming. This would make Infarm the first vertical farming company to tackle staple crop production in a controlled environment. The company reports that its initial trials demonstrated exceptional results, allowing a projection of 11.7 Kg per m2 yield per year. When further projected at scale, Infarm calculates an equivalent of 117 tonnes per hectare per year – 26 times that of…
Scottish agricultural infrastructure supplier Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) has signed a new partnership agreement with US firm HarvestUp, the smart farming business, to build a vertical farm at a Missouri technical college campus. This significant investment comprises four of IGS’ 40ft High-Growth Towers and will be based at the Ranken Technical College Campus in Ashland, which is currently under construction. It will provide the college’s students with a workforce learning environment where they can learn about vertical farming, IT, construction and HVAC systems as part of their agricultural studies, focusing on honing practical and technical skills. The vertical farm will…
With sights set on locations in Perth, Sydney, Singapore, Jakarta and beyond, Australia’s Eden Towers is building sustainable indoor vertical farms that use 98% less water and 1/10th of the space associated with traditional farming. This week the company has announced a partnership with Scotland’s leading vertical farming technology provider IGS (Intelligent Growth Solutions) to build a commercial scale vertical farm in Perth (Western Australia… not Scotland). IGS will build four 12-metre-high Growth Tower structures, which will create a precision-controlled indoor ecosystem where plants can thrive all year round without soil. The farm will achieve up to 15 times the yield…
Based in Silicon Valley, agtech start-up Iron Ox operates farms in California and is soon to begin selling produce from its new 535,000 sq. ft. indoor farm in Texas. The firm has had a bumper quarter to end 2021, it included a US$53 million ‘Series C’ funding round and the launch of TWO new farming robots as it enters what it calls ‘hyper growth mode’. Unlike vertical farms, Iron Ox grows plants under natural sunlight, the company focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, and robotics to optimise output. This enables the company to grow more with less, in…
With a vision to feed Britain in a more resilient and sustainable way, Fischer Farms is building a new £25m vertical farm in the UK. Constructed on a 4-acre site in the English county of Norfolk, the new plant is set to become the world’s largest vertical farm. Fischer Farms already has one of the UK’s largest vertical farm operations in Staffordshire where it grows a range of short leaf products via a stacked, biosecure, climate-controlled and fully automated system. This second vertical farm in Norfolk will create 25,000 m² of growing space – enough to supply 6.5 tonnes of…
Vertical farming technology companies are not all solely focused on feeding humans with leafy green garnish, some like American firm Grōv Technologies are using their innovative technology to grow animal feed. They do so with 95% reductions in water and land use as well as the complete removal of herbicides and pesticides from the growth chain. Today Grōv Technologies announced that it will build a controlled environment feed centre in the US state of Texas to grow fresh High-Density Nutrient (HDN) Superfeed™ year-round. The centre at the Cnossen Dairy will house next generation Grōv Tower Farm technology and produce over…
