SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/842067
4 2 SXS W O R L D | M A R C H 2 0 1 7 I N T E R ACT I V E / F I L M | SXSW.COM While Springdale is subject to the mercy of Mother Nature (the farm lost 75% of its 2016 tomato crops due to flooding), AeroFarms seems to have a omnipotent view of everything hap- pening on the farm. By collecting up to one million data points per day on its beds of kale, operators can optimize growing conditions for maximum efficiency. However, none of that matters if the bottom line doesn't add up to profit. The large initial investment required for food technology companies like AeroFarms means that the ramp to profitability is long and steep. Investors like Brian Frank of FTW Ventures (also a SXSW panelist) have taken hard looks at trends like vertical farming, from large-scale businesses like AeroFarms to more boutique operations such as Kimbal Musk's Square Roots, an agriculture accelerator that helps farmers develop indoor systems in freight containers. Food chains need disrupting, and there's plenty of money to be made, but Frank questions any operation with such a high input cost and cheap output product. "They have to invest in lighting, HVAC, electricity … all these things cost money. You have to recoup that cost over a period of time. My fear is that the payback on those is really, really long," says Frank. Taking electricity out of the budget by adopting a greenhouse model brings the equation closer to profitability, but it also opens a set of variables that can wrench an operation like AeroFarms' data-mining. Even so, it's hard for Frank to go all-in on a product like leafy greens when there are much more profitable herb industries on the rise (such as legalized cannabis). Profitability is obviously a huge goal, but agriculture isn't nec- essarily a gold digger's market. Another Austin operation striving to raise produce IQs is Get Well Farms, which is in the process of building a greenhouse incubator to produce thousands of seedlings for distribution to schools and community gardens. For Get Well, the most important agricultural issue isn't a lack of usable farmland or efficiency, but keeping the next generation connected to the soil. "The kid that never gets to take a trip to a farm, they're so separated from the earth, they'll never understand," says Get Well operational director Sean "Peppy" Meyer. Similarly, operations like Springdale Farms and AeroFarms, even if their methods are different, both hope that by bringing food systems closer to consumers, they are encouraging eaters to become more educated and involved with what ends up on their plates. So even if the future of agriculture might live 10 stories high, it will still start at ground level. Food is one of the Convergence tracks at SXSW, open to all SXSW badgeholders. For the full list of programming, visit sxsw.com/conference/food. S oil is the last thing that comes to mind when most people think about technology, but innovation in our farming supply chains is crucial to keeping up with demand for fresh food in an ever-changing world. According to disruptive agriculture com- panies like AeroFarms, the direction of that innovation is upwards. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in New Jersey, AeroFarms recently unveiled the world's largest indoor vertical farm in a 70,000 square foot space in a former steel mill. Its processes were developed as an offshoot of aquaculture, in which the plants grow out of a cloth-based medium instead of water and don't require soil or sunlight. A steady mist keeps them hydrated with 95% less water than a traditional outdoor farm. Leafy greens and herbs are the main products, and thanks to a data-obsessed approach, AeroFarms is able increase the productivity per square foot by 130 times what you'd find in the field. Yet, although these are hard numbers to argue with, vertical farming is still a concept that doesn't sit easily with many people. "There's a fear of Big Agriculture. When people hear tech- nology, they think, is this engineered food?" says Marc Oshima, AeroFarms co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer (his colleague David Rosenberg is a SXSW panelist). "But this is about how to harness technology to deliver a better product. Better flavor, better nutrition … it's by the community for the community." The approach has the potential to bring fresh and affordable produce to food deserts like the city of Newark, but the idea of a warehouse full of grow lights couldn't be further from the reality of many urban farms that aim to achieve the same goals. Springdale Farm on Austin, Texas' east side is both a shining and cautionary example of a community agriculture operation. The farm's five acres grow over 75 vegetable varieties, sold direct to restaurant chefs and consumers via a twice-weekly farm stand. Doubling as everything from a wedding venue to food truck site helps sup- plement the farm's income and endears Springdale Farm to the community, which hasn't always been welcoming. Gentrification accusations from neighbors led to a long battle with the city, just one of the many challenges of fitting a kale-shaped peg into a baby carrot-sized hole. The main difference between an operation like AeroFarms and Springdale isn't necessarily technology, but control. "If you're farming like we do, you somehow have this riverboat gambler mentality," says Springdale Farms' co-owner Glenn Foore. "All the data we have ... it's still a dice roll a lot of the time. You're always fighting these highs and lows. Freezing temperature, severe droughts. We're challenged every day when we step out the door." IS THE FUTURE OF FA R M I N G Vertical? By Dan Gentile