Why small-scale growers have a great opportunity
Added on 25 April 2023
Moderated by Brian Harris of Hort Americas, the panelists included Jeffrey Orkin of Greener Roots in Nashville, TN; Tyler Baras of Area 2 Farms in Arlington, VA; and Bob Jones of The Chef’s Garden in Huron, OH.
Below are just a few key insights from the webinar; you can watch the full recording here.
About Each Operation
The Chef’s Garden primarily markets to restaurants with a wide range of crops, and expanded to home delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has about 125 acres of outdoor production and 15 acres of covered production. “We made the decision to wait on vertical farming, and thankfully have not gone down that road yet,” Jones says. “We’ve experimented with different lighting options, and settled in on dynamic LEDs that we can program.”
Area 2 Farms does home deliveries from its vertical farm in Arlington, and has been doing so for about a year. Baras previously worked with large-scale vertical farming and greenhouse operations before setting out to do his own thing.
Greener Roots started as an indoor vertical farm, then expanded to add a 10,000 square-foot greenhouse. It mostly grows leafy greens and herbs and is 100% wholesale. Most of the product is sold in Nashville, but the company sends a truck to Atlanta weekly. It has LED lights in both facilities, and HPS lights in the greenhouses.
Photo: Greener Roots
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