This is one of the coolest urban farm models i've seen. The next step would be using LED light to grow multiple layers of crop but I like his business model and hopefully this sort of thing will start to slowly take a chunk out of conventional farming.

http://www.thefarmery.com/


Have any of you been to this place? You should.

11/14/2014 9:26:03 PM

a very small chunk

there's no way it would be profitable in 90% of US trade markets

11/14/2014 9:28:59 PM

That's neat and everything, sure. But yeah...there's no way that's gonna take any kind of significant chunk out conventional farming.

11/14/2014 9:35:49 PM

Maybe in 50 years and once led becomes cheap enough where you can do it on several stories with artificial sunlight. At some point land and transport prices will be high enough to make it work.

11/14/2014 10:33:52 PM

Ben is a buddy of mine. It's not mean't to replace conventional farming, but rather to move high-dollar produce direct to markets. Mushrooms, herbs and similar. I think his dream is to incorporate the farmery model into conventional grocery stores. Imagine having an aisle with fresh herbs you cut yourself, or grabbing your own portobello's for dinner.

11/14/2014 10:46:30 PM

Quote :

"At some point land and transport prices will be high enough to make it work."

What? You people who think that you need massive amounts of farmland to feed the country are insane. Farming continues to get more efficient every year. Shit man, look at how much we waste, throw out in the trash, or stupidly turn into fuel. Food is super cheap here and will continue to be so.

I live in Hawaii, which in terms of actual cost to supply food is about as expensive as you're likely to find, and even here it's still pretty inexpensive. It's not any more expensive to grow and transport something from Iowa to NYC than it is to get it to Tallahassee. What makes it pricier there is demand and offsetting real estate prices for the retailers who sell it. The cost for farmers and the price of transportation will continue to go down and real estate prices in urban areas will continue to go up. Do you really think it's going to be cheaper to grow rooftop bib lettuce than it will be to truck it in and dedicate growing space to selling space? The only way this model works is if you can locate it an area with enough of a niche clientele to support it. That's not going to be the case in most parts of the country or even in most large metro areas.

Most of what they're talking about growing (lettuce, herbs, strawberries) can be easily grown at home utilizing similar methods. If you've ever seen how much production you can get out of backyard tomato plants properly staked or vertically hung you know what I'm talking about. Same with strawberries, peppers, etc.

11/15/2014 9:56:01 AM

The idea in a grocery store would be interesting, but as we all know, we cannot have nice things...

Grocery store customers would make a mess of it ...

11/15/2014 10:04:09 AM

Quote :

"hopefully this sort of thing will start to slowly take a chunk out of conventional farming"

Hopefully, because I hate cheap, safe food.

Also farmery is a terrible name and makes me want to punch people.

11/15/2014 10:30:21 AM

the one good thing about The Farmery concept is that they won't need to worry about weed control or insect control pesticides (maybe fruit flies would be an issue). Soil-borne diseases shouldn't be an issue either as they'll be able to maintain fairly sterile soil and change it out as often as necessary

11/15/2014 10:48:47 AM

Quote :

"The idea in a grocery store would be interesting, but as we all know, we cannot have nice things... Grocery store customers would make a mess of it ..."

lol yeah. i do kinda like the idea of cutting your own herbs or whatever. would be neat, but still seems like a real specialty thing.

Quote :

"Ben is a buddy of mine. It's not mean't to replace conventional farming, but rather to move high-dollar produce direct to markets. Mushrooms, herbs and similar. I think his dream is to incorporate the farmery model into conventional grocery stores. Imagine having an aisle with fresh herbs you cut yourself, or grabbing your own portobello's for dinner."

Exactly...and that makes sense to me. This could never replace conventional farming...and this approach could really only be used for certain crops. But I do think it's an interesting idea.

[Edited on November 15, 2014 at 1:29 PM. Reason : f]

11/15/2014 1:26:11 PM

Quote :

"Food is super cheap here and will continue to be so."

Do you know why food is so cheap?

Quote :

" The cost for farmers and the price of transportation will continue to go down and real estate prices in urban areas will continue to go up."

Sounds like a bubble to me. Also, growing vertically in high-rise structures like parking decks offsets the high real estate prices.

Quote :

"Do you really think it's going to be cheaper to grow rooftop bib lettuce than it will be to truck it in and dedicate growing space to selling space? "

We are not paying real fuel prices in this country right now and even the artificial ones are going to increase a lot.

Quote :

"Most of what they're talking about growing (lettuce, herbs, strawberries) can be easily grown at home utilizing similar methods."

I'm not necessarily talking about just what the farmery is doing but the broader idea of growing/selling food in population centers. You could ultimately sell fish and even grow indoor pastures to raise meet in a closed loop environment. Thats really the only way we'd be able to feed a growing population and still eat the same things.

Quote :

"nd this approach could really only be used for certain crops. "

this specific approach but theres no limit to what can be grown and sold in urban areas. Especially with artificial light.

11/16/2014 12:03:33 AM

Quote :

"this specific approach but theres no limit to what can be grown and sold in urban areas. Especially with artificial light."

There's still a huge limit to space. A 10 acre strawberry field is incredibly more convenient and efficient than being spread over several urban buildings. You gotta count harvesting costs as well. Then you gotta transport all those berries to one central packing, refrigerating, and distribution location.

11/16/2014 10:54:54 AM

I'm not saying this will be done on a large scale today but we have the technology to grow 10 acres of strawberries in a much smaller building by using LED sunlight with automated harvesting.

-Think about it, you can fit crops closer together because theres no real soil.
-Harvesting is simple because theres no real soil
-Plants grow faster because sunlight angles are maximized and coming from 3 directions with no shade.
-Infinite growing season.
-You can stack the plants with something small like strawberries to get 10 levels of crops in a 2 or 3 story building. You basically could produce 10 acres of strawberries in a 1/4 acre building..

Its just a matter of time before these sort of farms take over.

11/16/2014 1:02:04 PM

it's all about price for the consumer. if strawberries are $5/lb instead of $2.50 and tomatoes are $5/lb instead of $1.50, you can kiss the majority of US consumers goodbye and you'll be nothing more than a niche faddy option for the upper class

11/16/2014 1:12:46 PM

Quote :

"-Infinite growing season."

this is already a reality with greenhouse tomatos and hoop house strawberries

and what you're describing sounds a lot like climate controlled environments aka greenhouses...isn't that far cheaper than growing stuff in urban environments?

[Edited on November 16, 2014 at 2:24 PM. Reason : f]

11/16/2014 2:21:29 PM

The trend in urbanization is not going to result in more urban farming. Quite the opposite in fact. Limits in urban land makes it cost prohibition E to use that expensive real estate for something as low in margin as perishable products. Why would you utilize a .25 acre lot to grow strawberries when you could use that same space for extremely profitable housing? Even with super low growing costs through hydroponics you're still not going to do it cheaper than on a traditional farm or a greenhouse.

11/16/2014 2:53:12 PM

^

11/16/2014 6:16:37 PM

Thats an accurate but extremely nearsighted point of view.

11/16/2014 6:31:39 PM

Not really. You don't believe in the concept of peak farmland, which is counter intuitive, but likely correct or at least correct enough that there will not be food shortages or an inability to adequately produce food. The cause of hunger is not due to lack of production or the price of producing crops and animals, it's largely due to inefficiencies in distribution and certain market forces.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/17/us-crops-idUSBRE8BG0QH20121217

11/16/2014 6:44:51 PM

Quote :

"Ausubel's study admits to making many assumptions - rising crop yields, slowing population growth, a relatively slow rise in the use of crops to produce biofuels, moderate rises in meat consumption - that could all skew the outcome, if not accurate. It also does not factor in any disruptions from significant climate change that U.N. studies say could affect farm output with rising temperatures, less predictable rainfall, more floods or droughts, desertification and heatwaves."

If a bunch of stuff that is clearly happening, wasn't happening, then this would be true. Got it.

Quote :

"it's largely due to inefficiencies in distribution and certain market forces. "

Thats transportation which is exactly why producing more food near people is the answer. I'm not talking about just the US either. I'm talking about everywhere. The US will obviously lag behind the rest of the world in solutions to transportation problems but that doesn't mean its not a real solution that the US won't someday need as well.

11/16/2014 6:59:02 PM

Hasn't Malthus been proven wrong enough times for people to recognize that he and his followers were wrong?

No, it's not a perfect study and any prediction model will have it's flaws. Climate change will have unpredictable effects so you work from a baseline. The point remains though, we do not lack for arable land to feed a growing population. There is no reason to think that there needs to be a total shift in the way food is grown. Yes, if you have the luxury to be able to produce and consume things locally it's preferable, but it's far from necessary nor is is automatically the correct way to use land on a large scale.

11/16/2014 7:13:48 PM