How to become a farmer without ever leaving the city
THE future of farming is taking root in a parking lot in Brooklyn.
A “ver t ica l fa r ming accelerator” called Square Roots is giving average green thumbs the chance to grow produce i nside sh ippi ng conta i ners a nd t hen sel l t hei r crop i n farmers markets, restaurants and other venues that favour loca l goods. The long-ter m goa l is to “empower t housands of millennials” to rediscover the virtues of “real food” and develop businesses that bring fresh, loca l produce to urban communities.
The first accelerator will debut this fall in the parking lot of an old Pfizer factory in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighbourhood. There, 10 shipping containers will be converted into vertical farms where fruits and vegetables can be grown using LED bulbs instead of sunlight. Just how much can you harvest in a 320-squarefoot container? The equivalent of about 2 acres of farmland, it turns out.
Vertical farming has been gaining traction of late as the declining cost of technology makes it a more commercially viable venture. The practice not only allows for denser farming because plants are stacked in tall rows, but also reduces the toll on the environment because even urban cities can source crops locally.
Square Roots is t he brainchi ld of co-founders Tobias Peggs and Kimbal Musk, seria l ent repreneurs look ing to upend t he count r y’s industrial food supply. Musk is the younger brother of Tesla and SpaceX pioneer Elon Musk a nd founder of The Kitchen restaurant group. Peggs, who work s a s president of The Kitchen, is a seasoned startup CEO whose pa st vent u res have been acquired by Walmart and Adobe.
Musk has been a vocal proponent of what he calls “real food” a nd restoring t r ust in the food industr y. That starts wit h produci ng more food loca lly, rather than shipping it i n f rom across t he g lobe, which ca n on ly happen i f den s el y de velope d u r ba n communities have the people a nd places to make ver t ica l farming a realit y, he said.
If successful, Square Roots c o u l d j u mp - s t a r t t h a t movement.
“The entrepreneurs will learn specific skills from our network of coaches and mentors – such as the ins and outs of hydroponic farming, or how to sell at a farmers market – but they will also be encouraged to innovate and collaborate on new ideas together,” Peggs said.
Square Roots is getting off the ground with an undisclosed sum of money from investors that include The Kitchen, Powerplant Ventures, GroundUp, Lightbank and FoodTech Angels, Musk said.
“We have a lot to prove in Brook ly n. But our a im is to replicate the model in ever y communit y as soon as we can,” Musk said.
He added that the next accelerators after Brooklyn will likely be located in places where The Kitchen already has a footprint, such as Boulder, Denver or Chicago. “While we are excited about every community in the country having a campus, we love to prioritise the communities that shared our vision and helped us along the way,” he said.