Coming to a city near you?
Posted on 04/11/2015 7:29:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Pasadena city officials recently signed a letter of intent to develop a vertical farming facility and education center in north Pasadena through an agreement with Indoor Harvest Corp., a Houston-based company that designs and sells hydroponic systems and specializes in high-tech urban farming techniques.
“We were looking for low-impact development projects for north Pasadena and came up with the idea of vertical farming, which seemed to be a perfect fit for that area,” Pasadena Publications Manager Wayne Holt said. “We also hope to eventually add a farmer’s market and educational programs in partnership with Pasadena ISD. This type of project offers a lot of exciting possibilities.”
The vertical farming facility will be located at what is now a satellite building for the Pasadena Police Department’s Community Services facility and an old fire station located at 112 N. Walter Street.
“The equipment and day-to-day operations would be set up on the second floor and the downstairs could be used for classroom spaces and the educational center,” Holt said.
Indoor Harvest Corp. and the City of Pasadena executed the LOI on March 31, according to a press release.
The current plan involves a for-profit operation to sell gourmet leafy greens, herbs and micro greens.
In addition, low-cost produce would be available to community organizations via a non-profit operation.
Per the terms of the LOI, Indoor Harvest Corp. proposed investing a minimum of $4.75 million to fund operations and provide the necessary equipment.
For their part, Pasadena city officials agreed to lease the facility to Indoor Harvest or their partners for $10 a year for up to 20 years.
In addition, city officials are also exploring the possibility of tax abatements if the company later elects to purchase the property.
The LOI is non-binding until the final terms of the agreement have been negotiated. Company officials said they were currently talking to potential investors.
When that piece is in place, Indoor Harvest and city officials will discuss the final memorandum of understanding agreement.
"With the execution of a final binding agreement, yet another major milestone will have been achieved,” Indoor Harvest's CEO and founder Chad Sykes said in the release. “We completed several technology pilots and will have secured a first step in developing an economic pilot for indoor vertical farming, our last step in being able to offer turn-key services to the vertical farming industry.
“With the support of the City of Pasadena, under the anticipated final binding agreement, we intend to work with partners to begin engineering what we believe, based upon our knowledge of the industry, will be the most advanced and efficient indoor farming operation in the United States, if not the world.
“We will start by engineering the entire system from the ground up, from the growing systems to the HVAC and automation systems,” Sykes said. “We're going to utilize the knowledge we have gained in that last three years of research, development and working with partners in executing this project.
"By taking an interest early in vertical farming, we think that with the implementation of a final agreement, Pasadena could become a major hub pushing this vertical farming technology. With its large industrial and manufacturing base, including access to the port of Houston and maritime shipping,
“Pasadena has the infrastructure to support the vertical farming industry, which NewBean Capital stated in a draft of a pending White Paper, is expected to be a $9 billion dollar industry if things in the industry develop as anticipated in the report.
“By incorporating an academic facility and non-profit operations into the commercial facility, the City will also be able to train the next generation of modern farmers for what we see as the emerging vertical farming industry," Sykes said.
No project timeline has yet been made available. For more information about Indoor Harvest, visit www.indoorharvest.com
I like the idea. Will it work?
Would it work on a small scale? In a backyard?
Amazing Food Rising photos show Health Ranger growing strawberries, peppers, tomatoes and 14-day micro greens... OH MY! http://www.naturalnews.com/049325_Food_Rising_fresh_strawberries_Health_Ranger.html#ixzz3X3h4xgId
It can work for some foods, like lettuce. The choice of crops is important to make it profitable.
Coming to a city near you?
Highly subsidized vegetables. Just what we don’t need.
We’d be much further ahead if every family simply put in a Victory Garden in any open spaces they’ve got. No government subsidy or meddling required. Just get them the heck out of the way.
Half the country is using government subsidies to switch from fossil fuels to solar power.
And then these people find a way to use government subsidies to go from solar powered farming to fossil fuel powered farming.
Government subsidies: they can do anything!
I seem to remember reading that there are several companies doing this in nyc. One main advantage of this type of farming is the massive reduction of water required. I think it was around 20% of the water volume typically required. Could be useful in drought prone areas.
Great seeing it go commercial. Imagine restaurants buying their produce from around the corner romaine-scraper tower instead of trucked in for hundreds of miles, and the contamination factor negated.
Thanks for the post. Interesting. I graduated from Pasadena High School, long, long ago.
Sounds like a ‘follow the money’ project. Plenty of vacant land it Texas. Just add water.
I graduated from Pasadena High School, long, long ago.
—
damn. a long time ago. ;-) Salute!
I had a friend buy a house and set it up for hydroponics. He then sold produce to local restaurants. It takes some good marketing and sales skills to get customers and make a profit. After a few years it became profitable. He got harassed by the cops for a while until he could show it was a legitimate business. The electric company turned him in for being a suspected grow house.
Consider the advantage of such greenhouses:
1. Highly-controlled growing environments, which means just about eliminating the need for pesticides and herbicides, not to mention being able to grow vegetables essentially year-round.
2. Very efficient water use, thanks to these greenhouses using hydroponics.
3. Because they can be located in urban areas, it means very low transportation costs and much higher quality of freshness of produce grown when finally sold at the retail level.
In short, we can effectively have farm-fresh produce of many types essentially year-round.
World’s Largest Indoor Farm is 100 Times More Productive
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3246076/posts
“every family put in a Victory Garden in any open spaces”
That would work great for folks that have homes or live in rural communities.
Sadly, this country has so many living in urban areas with no space...it won’t work.
Malthus and Ehrlich never invisioned this.
And that is the problem with most doom prognosticators - they see man’s potential through their own limited imagination and disregard the genius that exists in the rest of humanity.
Even in the urban areas, there are enumerable open spaces...which could be utilized if people used some ingenuity and if local bureaucrats didn’t make it impossible.
And most of America is not exactly close-packed urban.
“Most of America is not exactly...”
That is true as far as acreage goes...population, not so much.
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