Smallhold expands for meeting west coast demand

The creation of this farm is due, in part, to their successful $25 million Series A round. As an industry leader, Agritecture regularly provides coverage on Smallhold's innovative approach to business, including their eco-conscious packaging.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity purposes.

AGR: Why have you chosen Los Angeles as your next location? 
AC: There are a few reasons. This is not the main reason, but I'm from Los Angeles, so I get excited about going to my homeland. But the market was ready for us. The whole mushroom industry has seen an immense increase in demand. COVID accelerated this, but the numbers showed that Los Angeles led the pack in the country in increased mushroom consumption. And the retailers were extremely excited about it. 

AGR: What was different in setting up the Los Angeles farm versus your other locations?
AC: Each of our facilities is a new generation, and Los Angeles is our next generation [farm] - we've built larger chambers with completely different climate management systems. [It has] the next evolution of our control system, the FarmLINK system. There are screens everywhere, and everything is automated. It's a very special place. There's even more advanced food safety protocol than the other farms. Now, we're going back and updating the rest of the facilities, but LA is our most advanced yet. 

AGR: What's been the most challenging aspect of scaling a farming operation across the country? 
AC: It's the fact that we're across the country, and every city is different. We have to deal with different departments - sometimes the health department is involved, sometimes the agriculture department is involved. Generally speaking, though, a lot of these parties are really excited to have us in their city. 

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Courtesy of Agritecture

Source: Agritecture