Pilot project to make closed-loop VF an everyday reality

Added on 03 May 2022

Tags

Pilot project to make closed-loop VF an everyday reality

For centuries, urbanization has been paired with human development and economic progress. But, as globalization intensified over the last half-century, we've witnessed many cities lose the small businesses that created local economic prosperity, most commonly in the manufacturing sector. A similar pattern took hold in the food production sector, as diversified family farms near urban centers could no longer compete with hyper-specialized industrial farms and the efficiency of global supply chains.

Combine the two phenomena, and today, we find many cities with struggling local economies, an excess of vacant industrial buildings, and a lack of control over their food supply.

As such, we now see many cities around the world embracing urban agriculture and vertical farming as a means of combating these challenging economic headwinds. And while there are countless benefits to localized production via vertical farming, there are still many challenges when it comes to deploying vertical farms at such a scale where they could make a meaningful difference to local economies.

Setting up the vertical farming system on-site in the City of Glens Falls; image sourced from Re-Nuble

These include: high initial start-up costs that often dissuade entrepreneurs and investors, high energy use that poses financial and environmental drawbacks, a reliance on mined inputs from distant sources such as fertilizers, and a lack of experienced indoor farm managers.

Editor's Note: This is the first post of a series in partnership with AgTech startup Re-Nuble on an innovative project launching in the city of Glens Falls, New York. It includes information derived from an interview between Agritecture and members of the Re-Nuble team: Tinia Pina, Founder & CEO, Riyana Zafira Razalee, Head Of Business Development & Strategy, and Josh Fabian, Project Farm Manager.