Inside a vertical warehouse farm hiding in plain sight

Added on 18 June 2024

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Inside a vertical warehouse farm hiding in plain sight

Plenty’s vertical farm, spinach towers are in harvest. Courtesy of Plenty

Nestled between massive nondescript warehouses housing a concrete factory and a roofing plant in Compton, Calif. sits a massive 100,000-square-foot farm with the potential to put out more than 2 million kilograms (4.5 million pounds) of greens every year.

Unlike other farms you drive past, with miles and miles of open fields and workers picking, you wouldn’t know that this farm, operated by the startup Plenty, existed. It’s hidden in plain sight and home to cutting-edge technologies borrowed from other industries, including auto manufacturing, bioengineering, genetics, robotics, automation, agriculture and even energy.