Indoor farming delivers super-fresh produce to cities

The food isn't just local. It's grown indoors.

Rows of plants are stacked on top of each other in an industrialized room in the Iowa State University Research Park, in what's called a vertical farm. Nebullam controls the lighting, water and temperature to create ideal conditions to grow fresh produce year-round.

The plants get all the nutrients they need to thrive. No more, no less.

And there are no pesticides used because there are no bugs. The CEO jokes that the only bugs Nebullam has to deal with are software-related.

The plants soak up artificial sunlight through ever-more-advanced LEDs.

Yet those LEDs also put the eco-friendliness of vertical farming in a jam. The light requires electricity that — despite growth in renewable energy sources like wind power — comes largely from fossil fuels that belch greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Nebullam's origin

Co-founder and CEO Clayton Mooney said he sees a lot of benefits to vertical farming.

"There are fewer steps to actually get fresh, healthier food to someone," Mooney said. "We can grow closer to the consumer. Because we can control the environment, there's a lot less waste from our side."

Mooney said Nebullam is mostly focused on leafy greens because other crops, like corn, would be more expensive to grow in this environment.

Nebullam has been around since 2017. Mooney said the company started out wanting to be a technology provider to new and expanding indoor farms. It also sold lettuce to local restaurants and grocers.

But when the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, its mission evolved, and the company started selling and delivering lettuce directly to consumers on a subscription basis. Nebullam delivers to consumers in central and eastern Iowa: Ames, Ankeny, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Coralville and Iowa City.

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Photo Courtesy of iFarm

Source: Tri States Public Radio