hey guys is Nate storey with bright
Agrotech and we're going to talk about
the fundamentals of indoor farming for
someone who's never seen an indoor farm
before it can take a lot of different a
lot of different forms of course it
started with folks that were growing
typically on a single layer so they're
just growing indoors that's all they
were doing but they weren't necessarily
thinking about their growing space as in
three dimensional terms they're still
thinking about it in a very conventional
sense however as the industry has grown
more and more people started thinking
about indoor space as this three
dimensional volume to be utilized for
production so thinking about production
and volumetric terms as opposed to just
simply square footage so going from
two-dimensional to three-dimensional and
that is a really important leap to make
in the mind of an indoor grower because
growing indoors is more expensive in
some ways the goal is to make it less
expensive in others and so as we kind of
look at what the future of indoor
growing looks like volumes will be the
future so growing within a volume and
figuring out how we use that volume most
efficiently from a physics perspective
from an air flow perspective in
relationship to the plant and plants and
their needs as well as humans and their
needs these are really all of the things
are going to shape future forms of
indoor growing and it's something that
we think about every single day so when
we talk about growing within a volume
what we're talking about is taking a
single plane of production and turning
it are basically stacking those things
right so in traditional indoor growing
volumetric growing we're talking about
taking a plane of production like this
and stacking it right and just doing
this up and down and taking one
potential plane of production here and
making it three planes or five planes or
six planes something like that now there
there are issues with access of course
there are issues with this type of model
where there are issues with air flow and
other things but essentially this
illustrates kind of the the concept
behind conventional indoor growing now
kind of the new method that's emerging
is vertical plane growing it's efficient
in some other ways and there are videos
out there for you if if you want to
check those out that kind of explain the
differences but the idea here is that
we're growing now on vertical planes
like this and if we can grow on these
types of planes on both sides so we've
got plants on this side plants sticking
off of this side we can essentially
double or more the useful volume of a
given space and so we're just basically
thinking about taking this from a single
layer to multi-layer production whether
it is in vertical planes or horizontal
planes we're using our three-dimensional
space as effectively as possible so
indoor growing is a little bit different
from other conventional growing methods
when we grow indoors
our goal is space use efficiency but
from an economics perspective so it's
not just about cramming the most produce
into the smallest amount of space it's
about cramming the most produce into the
smallest amount of space economically
and that's a really really important
distinction to make because going from a
single plane in conventional agriculture
to indoor growing where we're growing in
multiple planes or growing within a
volume it's very very important that
we're always kind of keeping the
economics in mind when it comes to
setting up these multi-tiered systems or
vertical plane systems making sure that
we're thinking about clearly about the
economics of the equipment how much it
costs and how much it can produce in the
long run and what the market ultimately
is going to value our products add one
of the most important aspects of indoor
growing one of the biggest values of it
is the fact that we're growing in a
highly controlled environment now a lot
of people will look at traditional
greenhouse agriculture and they'll say
that's controlled environment egg and
that is kind of true but even in a
greenhouse there are limitations on the
amount of control that we can exert on
these crops as they're growing as
they're maturing and so when we move
production indoors into a highly
intensive three dimensional indoor
production environment it allows us to
exert a lot more control on temperature
on humidity on the air speed on
ventilation on co2 enrichment on all of
these different things that are maybe
just a little more out
control in a greenhouse because in a
greenhouse we're relying still on
certain natural elements to contribute
to our growing facility into our crops
whereas indoors it's all 100% under our
control and so as you move to higher
levels of control and smaller farms that
kind of thing we can move production
closer to the consumer which delivers
value moreover because they're endorsed
because it's highly controlled
they have really consistent production
which means their interactions with
their customers are highly consistent
and if you know anything about marketing
or branding you know that consistency is
the cornerstone of all branding and so
if you're trying to build a brand in the
marketplace you have the opportunity to
do that if you can produce consistently
throughout the year that's not something
that even greenhouse producers can
necessarily do so the the big role that
that this has to play in the industry is
its to part you have top-down so you
have big firms that are trying to grow
in huge warehouses and Replace field
agriculture but it's really valuable
it's a great effort and then you have
oftentimes what we're trying to do from
the bottom up which is build small
network of small farms networked people
people that are passionate about selling
food into niche markets into smaller
markets and meeting their customers
directly selling directly to those
customers and meeting consumer demand
for specialty items in these markets and
that is a huge huge market overall if
you envision kind of the traditional the
traditional landscape of the produce
industry you kind of have this big
general market the entire demand is out
here right but the general market
distributes really cleanly and really
efficiently to this part of the market
when we talk about indoor growing we're
not necessarily talking about this
market although some of the big firms
are really that their goal is to sell
into this general market what we're
really talking about is the fringes
we're talking about food deserts places
where fresh fruit hasn't been available
before rural communities we're talking
about places in the city where there
aren't grocery stores within walking
distance or where produce isn't
accessible to people a lot of those kind
of areas exist out here along the
fringes and those are oftentimes the
areas that are best served by this type
of Agriculture because it is hyper local
because it is distributed we can put
these types of farms in areas where
farms couldn't have existed previously
so in the broad definition of indoor
growing this encompasses greenhouse
growers to some extent there are
hundreds and hundreds of farmers out
there now there are there are hundreds
of farmers using our equipment that we
manufacture to grow commercially and
grow vertically grow in
three-dimensional space and some type of
a controlled environment as far as just
the general overall space I would say
there is probably a dozen to a couple
dozen true large-scale commercial
vertical farms in the United States
probably half of them are folks using
our type of equipment but by and large
there's a lot of different types of
equipment that are used all over the
world for this every different place has
unique resources that they can leverage
in Japan it's government subsidies and
these old factories that are available
and a lot of tech companies that are
looking for the next big thing in the
United States its markets that place
very high demand high value on local
produce in Southeast Asia it's safety in
China it's food safety demand from from
the market so everywhere you go there's
a lot of different techniques there's a
lot of different methods being used but
all of them are focused in on consumer
demand and what unique resources are
available in this particular market and
so as far as what it holds for the
future I think that ultimately indoor
farmer is going to offer indoor farming
will offer a solution to feed people who
have never been fed before at least not
good food and when we're talking about
food deserts when we're talking about to
the far north or these remote
communities I think we're really talking
about a need that we know how to meet
now and for me personally that's very
exciting
you know the idea of being able to feed
people in ways that they have not been
fed before and also the idea that this
can fundamentally change the economy of
food so fundamentally change the prices
were willing to pay for food
fundamentally change the way that money
circulates within the economy
fundamentally change how people how
people think of their relationship with
their food and the relationship with the
people to grow it and
this is another exciting thing for me as
is seeing farmers making more money and
playing a larger role in their
communities decentralizing food
production in a way that's that's super
positive and super profitable for
communities and for the farmers that
serve those communities I think you know
on a deeper level people are looking for
an opportunity to serve their community
there used to be a lot of ways to do
this
that we're very obvious or just kind of
part of our culture a part of our
community life and a lot of those things
have kind of fallen by the wayside I
think that a lot of people are looking
for an opportunity to connect with other
people in their community in a
meaningful way and on a meaningful basis
and I'm hoping that indoor farming can
be that thing for you for other people
in your community and opportunity for
you to grow food that feeds people it's
so fundamental it's as basic as it gets
putting food in someone's mouth is about
as basic as it gets but it's also an
incredibly powerful human experience and
so my hope is that on a more fundamental
level the opportunity to serve your
community to work with other people that
care deeply about this is a deeply
emotionally and personally rewarding
experience for you so if you're
interested in participating in some way
keep all of what I've set in mind check
out upstart University they offer
courses on indoor farming soil farming
you name it
compliance everything you need to know
to start a farm if you're in the
planning stage check out Abel egg it is
a great tool for planning your farm and
helping manage its startup check out our
blog we talked about all this stuff on a
regular basis and there's some great
discussions over there on the blog on
the Facebook group as well check these
things out and engage please engage it's
such a great opportunity for you to
offer your unique view and your passion
and your brilliance to the community as
a whole