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Indoor farm offers new life for ex-elementary school
The Daily Star ^ | August 11, 2018 | Whitney Bashaw

Posted on 08/14/2018 12:00:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

When the Unatego School District Board of Education voted to close the Otego Elementary School in February 2017, a committee formed to decide the fate of the building. In a 4-2 vote on Monday, Aug. 6, the board accepted an innovative farming proposal.

AgZeit LLC has high hopes. The proposal bills the collaborative project as “a new way of doing business that will economically revitalize Otsego County and the Mohawk Valley Region and help New York State once again become the breadbasket for the entire northeast.”

The Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council prioritized agribusiness initiatives in its 2017 Progress Report, considering it a viable engine for economic development in the region.

Agzeit LLC is the brainchild of James Dutcher and its operations currently exist in a classroom at Tiger Ventures, an alternative high school and business incubator in Endicott.

The concept to use indoor vertical farming technology with an optimized grow season is what Dutcher has been successfully experimenting with in Endicott.

Dutcher told The Daily Star that there are 32 units in the Endicott classroom, equivalent to five seasonal acres. The pilot has been running since November 2017 and makes an income of about $500 a week. Dutcher imagines that with the Otego facilities, AgZeit can scale up the production and the profit.

The business model states that 17 jobs will be added within the first year and another 21 in year two. The company projects that it will break even in year two. By year five, AgZeit intends to have 100 jobs with an average salary of $40,000.

“First and foremost we want to get the site productive,” Dutcher said.

Dutcher stressed the endeavor as collaborative, with a mix of private and public investors. 2445 Organics, a partner in the pilot out of Massena, developed the vertical grow rack technology that AgZeit uses.

According to the proposal, the funding ratio is 80 percent private investment to 20 percent potential grant monies.

Dutcher said that once the legal acquisition is complete, the company plans to be up and running within three months.

The fledgling business will tie high-production indoor organic farming with educational components and housing for veterans with opportunities for job training and a year-round farmers’ market.

“We’re not just focused on doing indoor farming,” Dutcher said. “We’re community-oriented.”

Additionally, the property will become part of the tax base of Otego.

Alternative energy sources are also planned for the building, such as incorporating a solar grid on the rooftop and using distillation and rainwater collection to water the crops.

While the plan is to develop a major food production site, the problem of distribution has been a major challenge in the area. Dutcher, however, is optimistic, saying that there is a readily available source of distributors. Further, the location is close to Interstate 88 on ramp, making it accessible for transport.

James Salisbury, president of the Unatego Board of Education, voted in favor of AgZeit.

“The hope is that it’s going to create jobs and will be something that is very beneficial to the Otego community,” Salisbury told The Daily Star. “I certainly feel like the community is looking forward to it.”


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Food; Gardening
KEYWORDS: agriculture; farming; food; indoorfarming

1 posted on 08/14/2018 12:00:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Interesting


2 posted on 08/14/2018 12:11:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Should be great for growing mushrooms.


3 posted on 08/14/2018 12:12:40 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob ("Other People's Money" = The life blood of Liberalism)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Clever.


4 posted on 08/14/2018 12:43:23 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s interesting, but there are many technological challenges. Some firms have been experimenting with this in Singapore, but it’s definitely not sorted out and working yet.


5 posted on 08/14/2018 12:45:31 PM PDT by dinodino
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The urban elites are obsessed with vertical farming so they can finally divorce themselves from the smelly, unwashed parts of the country that provide all of their food.

They hate rural America, and would like nothing more than to put it out of business.


6 posted on 08/14/2018 1:01:33 PM PDT by Haiku Guy (ELIMINATE PERVERSE INCENTIVES)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A cannabis producing company that makes CDB oil has bought the closed local mall in the city that I’m from and is going to use it to grow pot and make the oil there.


7 posted on 08/14/2018 1:04:30 PM PDT by NellieMae (Here......common sense,common sense,common sense,where'd ya go... common sense......)
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To: NellieMae

Yeah, pot growers have been doing “indoor farming” and going “vertical” for a long time, out of necessity to hide from the DEA.

However, their crops fetch a premium that can offset the costs of electricity for lights and AC, etc.

I’m not sure growing tomatoes or something would be cost efficient enough to get past the advantage regular farming has of free rain and free sunlight.


8 posted on 08/14/2018 1:13:26 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman
I’m not sure growing tomatoes or something would be cost efficient enough to get past the advantage regular farming has of free rain and free sunlight.

Our growing season here is the middle of May at the EARLIEST, to about the middle of Sept in a bad year.

IF we're lucky we can make it into Oct., but by then the sunlight is so weak and the days are so short and the nights are so cool, forget growing much of anything.

Fall is harvest the pumpkins and apples time.

It's a wonderful time of year, but you have to have such a limited growing season to appreciate the usefulness of this idea.

9 posted on 08/14/2018 1:47:52 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith......)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines; The Mayor; Steely Tom; Chode; mass55th; lysie

Upstate ping.


10 posted on 08/14/2018 1:48:58 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith......)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They would have broke even and made a profit the first year by planting outside in the sunshine.


11 posted on 08/14/2018 1:57:54 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: metmom

worth a shot

recycled schools are big business in NY

two near me, one is now the rural urban center and the other senior housing and community stage


12 posted on 08/14/2018 3:16:44 PM PDT by Chode ( WeÂ’re America, Bitch!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Interesting...I hope it does succeed...


13 posted on 08/14/2018 3:53:50 PM PDT by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is, too. :-))
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