Restaurants go truly local with rise of urban farming
As the farm-to-table movement takes hold globally, a technology-enabled revolution is brewing that could fundamentally change the way restaurants source fresh produce.
Indoor farms are popping up in urban areas across the country promising a wealth of short-growing-cycle produce in a way that is truly local.
Out of tiny shipping containers, on rooftops or in converted steel mills, these climate-controlled farms are producing everything from micro greens and leafy lettuces to mushrooms and tomatoes.
The produce can be delivered to restaurants just hours after harvest and year round. There are no variables for weather or global warming; no need for pesticides or herbicides. In fact, in some cases, there’s no soil involved.
These farms use hydroponic, aeroponic or aquaponic technology. Some are in greenhouses using natural light and some use shelf-like stacked planes or vertical growing walls with LED lighting. One shipping container, for example, can produce as much as two acres of farmland. Unlike outdoor farms, however, the indoor versions can repeat the growing cycle over and over, 52 weeks per year.
These urban farms can produce food with 95 percent less water than conventional farms, no run off or soil-stripping issues and food-safety can be strictly controlled from seed to restaurant delivery in a way that isn’t possible with acres of land exposed to wildlife, pollution and pests.
Early adopter Erik Oberholtzer, co-founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based fast-casual chain Tender Greens, envisions a not-too-distant future where restaurants and distributors will be able to tap a network of farmers that are transforming their communities and creating jobs by reactivating long-dormant mills and warehouses as urban farms or collectives.
“This is a disruptor. It is definitely changing the way we relate to food and the way we relate to farming,” he said. “There are those who worship the soil and are very against aquaponics and hydroponics and other methods of urban farming. But I’m a believer that there’s room for both traditional farming and urban farming and we intend to support both as we grow.”
The tipping point: Price
The technology is relatively new, but startups are popping up across the country and poised for growth, many supported by investments by national retailers like Costco, Whole Foods Markets and Safeway.
Altitude chef Justin Christy beside a Bright
Agrotech ZipGrow wall (Photo by Nikkita Miller)
Gotham Greens, for example, boasts more than 170,000 square feet of urban greenhouses on the rooftops of four facilities in New York and Chicago — including the roof of a Whole Foods Market — producing up to 10 million heads of leafy greens and herbs every year.
In New Jersey, AeroFarms recently opened a 70,000-square-foot aeroponic vertical farm in a converted steel mill in Newark. The company plans to build 25 urban farms over the next five years.
Infinite Harvest, based in Lakewood, Colo., operates a 5,400-square-foot hydroponic farm producing lettuces, arugula, kale, basil and other herbs for restaurants in the Denver area. Using stacked vertical planes, the facility is the equivalent of about an acre of farmland, if laid out flat, but produces 24-acres-worth of food in a year.
As such companies grow, the price of urban-farmed produce has come more in line with that of boutique and organic farms, said Oberholtzer.
Tender Greens buys from Go Greens Agriculture, which has a six-acre indoor hydroponic farm in Encinitas, Calif., and a second 14-acre unit under construction in Northern California.
Positioned more for the mass market, Go Greens is targeting growth of its farms close to distribution centers. But about 40 percent of business from the Southern California location is direct to restaurants, with trucks delivering within a two-hour driving radius each day.
Go Greens is one of only a handful of hydroponic farms certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While organic certification for such farms is currently allowed, a task force is considering separate rules specifically for urban farms using soil-free technology.
Tender Greens also buys from Local Roots, a collection of shipping container “TerraFarms” in downtown Los Angeles. Local Roots is pitching its modular “plug and play” farms to universities, hospitals, foodservice distributors and other hospitality settings.
For the 24-unit Tender Greens, urban farming will be key as the brand makes its move to the East Coast for the first time later this year. Oberholtzer said he’s looking at Gotham Greens to supply future restaurants in the New York area.
“Our vision was always to have a system that could scale with the expansion of Tender Greens and to grow those ingredients we knew we didn’t want to ship,” he said. “Lettuces and herbs and the most delicate of plants we wanted to grow as close to the restaurant as possible under the best conditions as possible.”
As the growers grow
Marc Scheuer, senior vice president of culinary for New York-based institutional foodservice provider Restaurant Associates, sees urban farms as a supplement to the conventional farms the company buys from.
Restaurant Associates uses greens from AeroFarms at five or six outlets throughout the city, said Scheuer, and soon will use more as AeroFarms expands. Scheuer said he hopes to eventually source greens for all 80 of RA’s outlets across New York City.
“The fact that we can have greens year round is huge,” said Scheuer. “Our clientele loves the story behind it. Anything to shrink the carbon footprint, and to bring jobs to an area with low unemployment. The message is great.”
AeroFarms’ greens are slightly more delicate than conventionally raised products, but just as flavorful, if not more so, Scheuer said.
“They can stress the plant to create more spiciness. I did a side-by-side comparison and it was amazing how much spicier the [AeroFarms] arugula was,” he said.
Vertically farmed produce is also cleaner than field-raised greens, Scheuer noted. “No one wants to find a bug in their salad.”
And RA has worked with the farm to buy a second cut of kale, for example, which includes more if the stem-side of the leaf that might otherwise be discarded.
“We mix it on the salad bar and call it kale sprouts. People are all over it,” said Scheuer.