{"id":11267,"date":"2021-05-29T15:37:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T15:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=11267"},"modified":"2021-05-29T15:09:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T15:09:12","slug":"is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment","title":{"rendered":"Is indoor farming having a moment?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Four years ago, the vertical farming startup Bowery opened what it called the first \u201cpost-organic\u201d farm, growing pesticide-free leafy greens inside a warehouse in New Jersey, United States. Now its products are in 850 stores, and the company just announced a new $US300 million round of funding. Has indoor farming reached a tipping point?<\/p>\n<p>The business model is feasible now, says venture capitalist Hans Tung, a managing partner at GGV Capital, one of the investors in the new round and an early investor in the startup. Lighting is one of the biggest expenses for indoor farming, but the cost of ultra-efficient LED lights has fallen steeply over the past decade. Automation has advanced enough that it\u2019s cost-effective to do much of the work inside an indoor farm with robots. Software to manage complicated growing systems has also advanced. \u201cA combination of software, hardware, and the price of key inputs [can] make it affordable,\u201d he says. \u201cOtherwise, it\u2019s too expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Growing food in a warehouse has some advantages over traditional agriculture. With crops in stacked trays or planted on vertical walls, many more plants can fit in the same footprint. LED lights tuned to shades of pink or purple help plants grow faster and can be tweaked to change the nutrition or taste. Because the plants are in a controlled environment, no pesticides are needed, and with no limitations from the seasons or weather, crops can grow year-round. Instead of growing greens in drought-prone areas and then shipping them elsewhere, it\u2019s possible to use a hydroponic system with 95% less water and deliver produce the same day it\u2019s picked. (The system also has some disadvantages, including the energy needed for lights instead of sunshine, though it\u2019s possible for indoor farms to use renewable electricity.)<\/p>\n<p>Read the full article and more on Fast Company SA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Four years ago, the vertical farming startup Bowery opened what it called the first \u201cpost-organic\u201d farm, growing pesticide-free leafy greens inside a warehouse in New Jersey, United States. Now its products are in 850 stores, and the company just announced a new $US300 million round of funding. Has indoor farming reached a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-11267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is indoor farming having a moment? - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Four years ago, the vertical farming startup Bowery opened what it called the first \u201cpost-organic\u201d farm, growing pestici ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is indoor farming having a moment?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Four years ago, the vertical farming startup Bowery opened what it called the first \u201cpost-organic\u201d farm, growing pestici ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-29T15:37:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/05\/img-60b258fe9ed7a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Is indoor farming having a moment?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-29T15:37:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment\"},\"wordCount\":315,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/05\/img-60b258fe9ed7a.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/is-indoor-farming-having-a-moment\",\"name\":\"Is indoor farming having a moment? 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