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Aerofarms: Combating Global Food Crisis

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CIOL Combatting global food crisis

The 69,000-square-foot warehouse in Newark, no soil, no sunlight, stacked trays outfitted with LEDs and sensors and a harvest of 2 million pounds of fresh, leafy greens. A preview of what's coming your way this spring.

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Vertical farm startup AeroFarms, with a mission to combat our global food crisis, is about to open the world's largest vertical farm in New Jersey  which will produce up to 30 harvests and yield two million pounds of greens. In comparison, a traditional outdoor farm in New York state produces about three lettuce harvests in a good year.

CIOL Aerofarms: Combat Global Food Crisis

The world’s largest vertical farm which will be company’s ninth in the list is coming up in a renovated warehouse that was formerly a steel mill. The facility features 35 rows and 12 levels of vertically grown greens, like kale, arugula, and mizuna.

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"Cities have a lot of mouths to feed. We have population growth, urbanization, and we need better ways to feed humanity that is sensitive to the environment," AeroFarms' CEO and founder David Rosenberg tells Tech Insider. "Vertical farms are one of many solutions."

The startup follows strict guidelines about farming and harvesting. To avoid contaminating the plants, allAeroFarmers wear rubber gloves, hairnets, and overall suits. Anyone who enters the farm must wash their hands, wear a hairnet, and wipe their shoes on a special mat.

Harvesting Process without Sunlight

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The process starts with the AeroFarmers pouring tiny seeds onto a tray that's covered by a recyclable cloth woven from recycled plastic. Each sheet is made from 24 water bottles. Then these trays are kept under LED lights that imitate natural sunlight at a specific intensity and spectrum that's customized for each plant.

The trays are periodically supplied with nutrients and there is mini-fans spin at the center of every vertical bed, giving oxygen to the veggies.

Digital Sensors and Tweaking

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The sensors in the trays collect 30,000 data points to track how the plants grow. This data is then examined by scientists from MIT and Harvard, allowing farmers to constantly improve the plant-growing process.

The interesting aspect is that if a green isn’t sprouting at a certain light spectrum or oxygen level, the farmers can tweak the settings for the next batch. AeroFarms constantly runs A/B tests to perfect the “algorithm” for every plant.

The urban farm will be using 95% less water and 50% less fertilizer than traditional vegetable farms. The plants are all grown without pesticides because they’re protected from pests inside the warehouse.

The company which has all its vertical farms in the Newark says it will bring fresh produce year-round to New York and New Jersey for the same price as organic lettuce.

With their patented technology, AeroFarms has taken indoor vertical farming to a new level of precision and productivity with minimal environmental impact and virtually zero risk.

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