Ranging from a biosystems engineer to a children's nutrition expert to a specialty crop container grower, meet seven people pushing the produce industry forward.
The produce industry relies on exceptional people to advance the processes of growing food, improving it and getting it to consumers' plates. In this month’s cover story, meet seven of the leading People in Produce.
Would you like to see someone recognized in a future issue? Drop us a line at pwilliams@gie.net
Photo courtesy of Vineland Research and Innovation Centre
Dr. Amy Bowen
Director of consumer insights, Vineland Research and Innovation Centre
Bowen researches consumer sensory perceptions of produce.
Human perception of flavor involves the integration of taste and smell, and forms part of a discipline called sensory science. Researcher Dr. Amy Bowen has dedicated her career to advancing this field.
To further this work, Bowen joined the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre in 2009. As director of Vineland’s consumer insights team, she harnesses sensory evaluation best practices to meet consumer expectations of fruits and vegetables grown in controlled environments. In practice, Bowen’s research focuses on understanding the intrinsic (appearance, aroma and taste) and extrinsic (price and packaging) drivers that impact consumer preference for horticultural products.
“Doing this type of work with fresh products is unique,” says Bowen, a Ph.D. in biological sciences with a specialization in plant science, oenology and viticulture. “It’s creating value for people growing in greenhouse environments.”
Bowen’s current activities at the Vineland facility in Canada’s Niagara region include deep-dive studies into tomatoes and edible flowers.
Edible flowers are surging in popularity as a garnish or to give dishes a signature flavor. Bowen’s team partnered with an Ontario-based grower of fresh herbs to gain insights into the booming market, splitting consumers into groups based on their preferences.
Results showed that edible flowers such as nasturtiums and candy pop mint are favored by fans of bold flavor, while impatiens and dianthus are approved for their smooth texture. The findings would help outline a business plan for Vineland’s herb-distributing partner, should it expand into the edible flowers market, Bowen says.
Meanwhile, Vineland scientists are busy developing two hybrid varieties of greenhouse tomatoes, creating two new flavor profiles that should be ready for distribution by 2020. Bowen’s group studied 56 varieties of tomato, digging into attributes including sweetness, bitterness, firmness and smokiness. A selection of fruits was passed onto a consumer panel, allowing researchers to compile a list of aroma-producing chemical compounds that the test group associated with liking or disliking a particular tomato.
Texture and consistency became additional important characteristics in how test consumers shaped their opinion, Bowen says.
“It’s a bit like Goldilocks,” she says. “People don’t want a tomato that’s too soft or too hard. They want it to be just right.”
Once texture is determined, tomatoes with the right consistency can be crossed with preferred chemical compounds to breed the “perfect” tomato, or at least its closest approximation. For Bowen, the pleasure is in researching a diversity of products derived directly from the greenhouse.
“I love the reactions we get from consumers, and the whole value chain in producing something people are excited to consume,” Bowen says. — Douglas J. Guth
Douglas is a Cleveland Heights, Ohio-based freelance writer and journalist. His work has been published by Midwest Energy News, Crain’s Cleveland Business and Fresh Water Cleveland.
Photo courtesy of United Fresh Produce Association
Mollie Van Lieu
Senior director of nutrition policy, United Fresh Produce Association
Van Lieu promotes policies that are focused on increasing fruits and vegetable consumption.
Mollie Van Lieu has spent much of her career advancing school food policies, a commitment that continues today in her role as senior director of nutrition policy at the United Fresh Produce Association.
Van Lieu joined United Fresh last September, bolstering a Washington, D.C.-based policy team meeting national regulatory challenges in bringing healthy foods to kids. Among other duties, Van Lieu champions policies to ensure fruits, vegetables and other nutritious goodies are integrated into school meals daily. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, for example, introduces students at 7,600 schools nationwide to a variety of produce they otherwise may not have the opportunity to sample.
“Fruits and vegetables are served in the classroom, and the teacher eats with the children, too,” Van Lieu says. “There’s an educational component to the program.”
Van Lieu has worked closely on kid-centric nutritional issues for over a decade, including a stint on the staff of Rep. Todd Platts (R-Pa.), where she helped foster sponsorship of the House’s 2010 Child Nutrition Reauthorization program.
From 2011 to 2014, Van Lieu campaigned for healthy eating as a strategist for the National PTA, working with United Fresh to boost various nutritional programs. Her advocacy for youth food programming continued in 2014, when Pew Charitable Trusts named her a senior associate of government relations.
After years of cultivating relationships with stakeholders on Capitol Hill, Van Lieu is pushing improved health standards for efforts like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, which offers food assistance to millions of low-income citizens nationwide. She’s also advocating for a farm bill currently being considered by Congress.
“Having been on the Hill when changes were made to school meals, I see it as making sure these policies are implemented successfully,” Van Lieu says. “Policy is only as successful as folks working on it on the ground, and the industry stepping up to provide [nutritious] products.”
United Fresh represents growers and suppliers as well, introducing them to school service directors as a means of bringing new products into cafeterias. While most decisionmakers Van Lieu meets understand the benefits of produce, many don’t realize how heavily unconsumed fruits and vegetables still remain.
“We’re trying to find a tipping point in policy to include produce consumption,” Van Lieu says. “We need to make sure there are opportunities for people who are struggling.” — Douglas J. Guth
Photo courtesy of Ricardo Hernandez
Ricardo Hernandez
Chief scientific officer and co-founder, Grafted Growers
The North Carolina State University professor will use his research expertise to grow grafted tomato and watermelon seedlings for wholesale, and possibly retail.
Dr. Ricardo Hernandez performs research and teaches as assistant professor of horticultural science at North Carolina State University, and previously studied and conducted research at the University of Arizona. His research background points to plant grafting as a crucial tool contributing to agricultural production. Beginning this fall, Hernandez will be working within a high-tech toolbox to explore the commercial creation of specially grafted produce.
Grafting is a horticultural technique used to join parts from two or more plants so that they appear to flourish as a single plant. As chief scientific officer and co-founder of Grafted Growers, a vertical farm in Raleigh, North Carolina, Hernandez will harness years of horticultural experience to grow grafted tomato and watermelon seedlings in a precisely controlled environment.
Unlike working in a greenhouse where unpredictable natural light is a critical growth regulator, the vertical farm allows Hernandez to experiment with temperature, air velocity and various artificial light wavelengths, producing hardy plants that carry potentially higher drought tolerance and disease resistance than his nearest competitors.
“In a greenhouse, you’re depending on the outside weather, and you’re only getting high-quality plants during certain times of the year,” Hernandez says. “We have the same environmental conditions the entire year, so the quality of plants is always going to be consistent.”
Hernandez founded Grafted Growers alongside business partner John Jackson with help from a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) innovation grant. The pair is currently building out a 6,000-square-foot facility set to open later this fall.
Once up and running, the operation will sell to greenhouses and field growers. Hernandez also expects Grafted Growers to have a retail presence, both on site and through the company website, graftedgrowers.com
“Our end goal is to produce plants faster, and ensure they grow well and have good morphological characteristics,” Hernandez says. “This isn’t a smoking gun, as there’s still a need for field and greenhouse production. But using a controlled environment is one more tool we have to keep producing food.”
Additionally, Hernandez hopes to educate a new generation of farmers and scientists on what he deems an innovative means of plant production.
“Right now we have a need for talent in agriculture,” Hernandez says. “We’re not just showing acres of grain, but how plants can be grown through technology.” — Douglas J. Guth
Photo courtesy of Heather Szymura
Heather Szymura
Grower/owner, Twisted Infusions
By catering to a niche market, Twisted Infusions grower/owner Heather Szymura has built a thriving hydroponics business in Arizona.
Heather Szymura, the grower and owner of Twisted Infusions in Glendale, Arizona, started growing produce professionally two years ago in a Freight Farms-brand container farm after a career in corporate America. Although she had been a gardener for more than a decade, it was her first experience with controlled environment agriculture (CEA).
“I started with kale and lettuce because that’s just what everyone starts out with,” she says. “It was really beautiful and it came out really well. And I took it to some chefs because I didn’t want to go to farmer’s markets — I have two kids and don’t want to give up my Saturdays. But the lettuce and kale wasn’t enough for them, so I started to grow some things that they couldn’t get good quality. And it led me down the path of research and finding things that don’t necessarily grow well outside in Arizona.”
Fast forward to today, and Szymura co-owns Twisted Infusions with her husband, Brian. In the vertical hydroponic system, Szymura primarily produces unique products such as oyster leaf, salad burnet and some greens for the same local restaurants she met when she was still exclusively growing greens.
“I try to look for things that people have never heard of,” Szymura says.
The key to Twisted Fusion’s business model is that Szymura understands her clientele — a group of 10 to 15 different restaurants in the Scottsdale and Phoenix areas. When looking for new clients, Szymura prefers to work with chef-owned establishments when possible, as well as taking custom orders from restaurants or other customers. Not only does it allow her to grow the type of plants that interest her the most, but it also makes business sense. Most households aren't shopping for unique garnishes; chefs are.
“The alternative is going to farmers markets or going to distributors,” Szymura says. “If I go to a distributor, I won’t be making enough money to make farming worth my time. It’s a commodity market and I’m not selling stuff that’s high commodity because nobody else has it.” — Chris Manning
Photo courtesy of Joel Cuello
Dr. Joel Cuello
Professor of biosystems engineering at the University of Arizona
Cuello designs controlled-environment technologies in an effort to feed a growing population.
The idea that originally drove Dr. Joel Cuello to pursue a career in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) keeps him going to this day — the concept that as the global population grows, so does the need to produce safe, nutritious and high-quality food.
“The motivation behind my research is to be able to help meet the increased food demand by the planet and do so in a sustainable way — in a way that would not deplete the essential resources, which are vital for food production,” he says. “To me, that’s the grandest challenge [of] this century.”
The professor of biosystems engineering at the University of Arizona grew up in the Philippines. He acquired his bachelors degree from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños before moving to the United States and attending The Pennsylvania State University, where he earned two masters degrees and his Ph.D. in agricultural & biological engineering. Cuello then took his talents to NASA, where he worked on developing a hybrid lighting system for possible crop production on the moon, Mars or asteroids.
Since 1995, Cuello has worked at the University of Arizona, where he has designed new technologies, such as the Vertical Green Box Solution. Cuello’s prototype of a modular vertical farm consists of containers, which he says could make use of electric or natural light, or be constructed of solid walls and roofs or transparent ones. Because it is different than a warehouse or skyscraper farm, Cuello dubs it “Vertical Farming 3.0” (formerly “2.0”). “I’m championing that because it’s a competitive alternative to the warehouse, and it’s efficient; and it could be potentially lower-cost in terms of construction and operation,” he says. None have been built yet, though, so he is looking for partners.
Another one of Cuello’s inventions is the patented Accordion Photobioreactor. The zigzag-shaped device produces microalgae, which can then be used in pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and biomass. The invention comes in three types, he says — one that supports photoautotrophic (photosynthetic) production and recirculates liquid; another that enables photoautotrophic production and doesn’t recirculate; and a third that carries out heterotrophic production, meaning it doesn’t use light.
Cuello also has other projects in the works. He serves as a member of the Governing Board and will help with the technology at Cobre Valley Indoor Farm, a nonprofit community-based organization in Claypool, Arizona, that is opening up a vertical farm in an abandoned school. He has also started growing carrots through a process called cellular agriculture, which is comparable to when meat is grown in a lab.
During his global travels, Cuello says he has found public demand for controlled environment agriculture, and he believes that more companies will use renewable energy sources. He is committed to sustainability, introducing his own “Cuello’s Law.” “It’s an industry aspiration, or goal, that productivity per unit resource used will double every four to five years,” he says. — Patrick Williams
Photo: Chris Manning
Kim Hookway
President, Buckeye Fresh
After a career in the manufacturing industry, Kim Hookway partnered with a former colleague to open a local vertical farm that now sells its product to major grocery chains in Ohio.
When Kim Hookway, president of Medina, Ohio-based vertical farm Buckeye Fresh, sold the brand’s produce by going into different Northeast Ohio grocery stores — first Buehler’s Fresh Foods, then Giant Eagle and Heinen’s — she had to connect directly with each store’s produce managers. It took some work, but Hookway did what was necessary to help get the business going.
“Before we even went into business, we checked with Buehler’s to see if they would be interested in locally grown produce,” she says. “At the beginning, it was also talking to produce managers and getting them on board.”
Hookway’s background is not in horticulture; she spent 20 years at a manufacturing company alongside Buckeye Fresh principal investor Tim Remington before founding Buckeye Fresh in 2014. As the company’s president, she has utilized the skills she developed in her previous role to help Buckeye Fresh find success.
According to Remington, Hookway’s ability to accurately approximate order sizes has been essential to making the business successful. When Buckeye Fresh sells its greens and basil to its customers, it must do so based on estimates instead of fixed order amounts. In her previous job, Hookway managed multiple components of cushioning components for shoes and varying order sizes from different customers. Just like growing, it required understanding and organizing several factors all operating on different schedules. With growing, it took some trial and error, but Hookway can accurately estimate and book the farm’s towers for specific crops based on past order trends.
“Without her doing the scheduling, we couldn’t manage the harvesting and growing,” Remington says. “And this is more difficult [than what she used to do].”
As Buckeye Fresh continues to expand, its basil and greens are sold in stores as far south as Columbus (115 miles) and as far east as Pennsylvania (a minimum of 276 miles). Late in 2018, it will also debut greens with Giant Eagle’s Market District — the grocery chain’s branding for local suppliers — that will be sold in roughly 200 locations. Hookway says the business is already turning a profit. “It’s about understanding the business,” Hookway says.
And its success started with her. — Chris Manning
Ray Solotki
Executiv
Photo: Ray Solotki
e director at Inuvik Community Greenhouse
The Vancouver Island native aspires to improve food access in the Arctic.
Located north of the Arctic Circle in Canada’s Northwest Territories, the Inuvik Community Greenhouse — a converted ice hockey arena — is one of the most remote greenhouses in the world. “Even though we’re in the Northwest Territories, the only road out goes into the Yukon, and we can’t even get to our capital city by road,” says Ray Solotki, executive director. Solotki originally came to this icy abode — where temperatures regularly dip to -20° F in the winter — to feed herself. Three years ago, she committed to helping feed the rest of the community.
Solotki is from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, (“the south,” according to her), but moved north near Inuvik in 2015, when she took a job at a hotel. She chose to live in Inuvik because of the greenhouse. “I knew I could grow my own food for at least part of the year and have some local food production of my own,” she says. Solotki became the first executive director at the greenhouse, which had previously been managed by a volunteer board of directors and summer employees since it first opened in 1998.
The nonprofit Community Garden Society of Inuvik runs the greenhouse; the government of the Northwest Territories funds the gardening society and others in seven surrounding communities: Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Tsiigehtchic, Tuktoyaktuk and Ulukhaktok.
Solotki’s job, which includes financing, human resources and public relations duties, was created to provide food access to all eight communities, which have limited access to fresh food due to the climate. This includes indigenous people, who make up roughly 64 percent of Inuvik’s population and approximately 50 percent of the population of the Northwest Territories, according to the 2016 Canadian Census.
Local indigenous populations have land to hunt and trap, but a lot of them don’t eat many vegetables, Solotki says, noting how the produce that is flown up from the south loses its freshness. “But when [vegetables are] fresh, you can barely get them from the greenhouse to the house because they’re eaten so quickly,” she says. “No one has ever put a pea on a plate in the Arctic because they were gobbled up in the greenhouse because it’s so exciting to have such fresh, local produce.”
Currently, the 16,000-square-foot, passive solar greenhouse is only open from April until September, and with high daylight and heat in the summer, its soil-grown lettuce and leafy greens can bolt if not harvested quickly. The greenhouse hires experienced growers from out of town every summer, but Solotki wants to change that. She aims to work with Modular Farms of Ontario to build a year-round facility, which will cost $350,000, and work with a partner in the community to find a location to install it and hook it up to that partner’s electricity. (Electricity costs are high at 79 cents per kilowatt-hour.) This approach would allow locals the opportunity to grow their own produce year-round.
In the same vein, Solotki hopes to grow a wider variety of crops to accommodate local diets and preferences. “We want to see some heavier items, so beans, peas, tomatoes.” She would also like to grow tomatoes, onions and carrots — ingredients in the popular Canadian dish, caribou stew. Adds Solotki: “These are the staples of an Arctic diet.” — Patrick Williams
Columbus grown
Departments - Consumer Corner
The Greater Columbus Convention Center added its own in-house vertical farm in 2018 and it’s already allowing the center to offer its customers something new.
The Greater Columbus Convention Center’s indoor farm currently grows basil, chives, bok choy and other vegetables.
Photo courtesy of the Greater Columbus Convention Center
Cultivate’18 attendees may have seen an indoor vertical farm — and some of the early-stage leafy crops visible on the outside of it — while getting a coffee or walking from the show floor this year. But the farm didn’t officially open until after the event ended. By the time Cultivate’19 rolls around, there’s a chance attendees will be able to tour the farm — which is outfitted with vertical racks and LED lights — and perhaps eat some of the food it produces.
Below, Daniel Palawasta, the general manager of food and beverage at Levy Restaurants, the operator of the Greater Columbus Convention Center’s food service, answers questions about how the farm came to be, how he learned to farm and what the farm is currently growing
Produce Grower: How did the farm become a reality?
Daniel Palawasta: When we came into Columbus, the thought was that we would take the traditional route of putting a garden on the roof. It’s a convention center — there’s plenty of space up there. And very quickly, what I determined is that if I put it on the roof, and I don’t tell anyone about it, nobody knows about it. And the whole value of the program is dependent on folks telling everyone that it’s out there. So, I said ‘What about bringing it inside the building? What can we do to make it more experiential for the everyday guest?’ We were going through a remodel, so I went back to ownership and asked if there was any space on the floor for a garden inside. The initial answer was no, but I continued to do the research anyway. I ended up presenting the Bright AgroTech model to the chairwoman of the board, said I needed 150 to 200 square feet, I want to make it visible to the guests and almost instantly she was onboard.
Daniel Palawasta
Photo courtesy of the Greater Columbus Convention Center
PG: You don’t have a horticulture background. How did you figure out how to grow in a vertical system?
DP: I’ve been in the food and beverage industry for 30 years now. I’d never grown anything in my life, either at home or professionally. No one on my team was really geared toward that. I spent many hours every day on YouTube, learning and watching videos and taking an interest in how the system works and what to grow and how to grow and when to grow. And I didn’t know anyone in this part of the business, so I had to research. I needed proven technology.
PG: What has grown well in the farm? And what does having local access mean for the business?
DP: Chives are doing well right now. The basil is doing great. Bok choy does well for us. Kale does incredibly well. From a financial standpoint, I can’t grow enough. It’s not scaleable for me when I’m feeding 10,000 people. But what it does do, especially for banquets and galas, is design a menu three or four months out in conjunction with our clients that uses those products in some way — like using basil in a cocktail or using fresh chives as a garnish. That’s where the real value is.
Tomatoes 101, Part I: a production guide
Departments - Hydroponic Production Primer
Tomatoes are one of the most popular hydroponically grown crops and many varieties are bred specifically for those systems.
Fig. 1. Since the light from light-emitting diodes produce minimal radiant heat, they can be placed in a tomato canopy to provide light to photosynthetically functional leaves that are otherwise shaded by other plants.
Photo: Christopher J. Currey
Genetics: The tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is one of the most popular crops to grow hydroponically. Those grown in greenhouses and controlled environments have been bred specifically for these environments. The four most popular types of tomato cultivars grown hydroponically are: 1) beefsteak, 2) tomatoes-on-the-vine, 3) cherry or cocktail, and 4) grape. The relationship between yield and sweetness (brix) is inversely related for these cultivars; beefsteak and tomatoes-on-vine have greater yields than cherry and grape tomatoes, but the lower-yielding varieties are sweeter compared to the larger fruits. Many of the tomato cultivars developed for hydroponic greenhouse production also are bred to have resistance to pathogens including bacterial speck, powdery mildew, fusarium and verticillium wilts, leaf mold, root-knot nematodes; and viruses such as tomato mosaic, tomato spotted wilt and tomato yellow leaf curl.
Production systems: As a high-wire vine crop, stone wool or coconut slabs are the most popular system for producing tomatoes (Fig. 2). For both stone wool and coconut coir, different products are available that vary in their capacity to dry down and rewet, which can be used to manipulate substrate moisture and steer crops between vegetative and reproductive (or generative) states. Dutch buckets filled with perlite or lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LECA) are also commonly used for tomato production, though the labor involved with washing the containers between crops limits their use to smaller facilities. Tomatoes can be grown in nutrient-film technique channels, though the larger root systems necessitate larger channels and can impede achieving the target flow rate of nutrient solution. Therefore, NFT systems should be avoided for commercial production.
Propagation and young plant production: Tomato plants are propagated from seed. Seed are initially sown in small propagation cubes (~50 to 200 seedlings per flat). With temperatures between 72 to 75° F, seeds will germinate within a few days. Depending on the time of year, providing supplemental light to avoid unwanted stretch is beneficial. Seedlings should be fertilized with a solution around 1.0 mS/cm after cotyledons have unfolded. Too much fertilizer can result in excessive growth. In addition to seed propagation, transplants may also be propagated vegetatively using grafting. First, seedlings of cultivars to be used as rootstocks and scions (shoots) are grown. Once the second true leaf has unfolded, seedlings are ready to graft. Both rootstocks and scions are cut at a 45-degree angle; rootstocks should be cut below cotyledons, while scions should be cut wherever the stem diameter matches that of the rootstock. After cuts are made, a grafting clip or tube is placed around the rootstock and the scion is placed in the clip that will hold tissue together. Once clips are placed on the grafted plant, they are placed in an environment conducive to healing for four days to one week, then exposed to ~100 µmol·m–2·s–1, with high humidity (= 95%) the whole time. Both grafted and non-grafted plants are transplanted into four-inch blocks of rockwool or coconut coir to grow more before transplanting into systems. Both fertilizer concentration and light intensity can increase after transplanting into blocks. Tomato plants are trained in a lean-and-lower system and training can begin during young plant production. Stakes are placed into substrate blocks at a 45-degree angle and the stems of young plants can be trained to these. This introduces an angle to the stem, so when stems are lowered later in production, the stem is not cracked and plant damage is avoided.
Nutrient solution: Once blocks with young tomato plants are transplanted into slabs or Dutch buckets, the strength of the fertilizer solution can be increased again while plants are establishing, and again once plants have established. A nutrient solution around 2.5 mS/cm can be used for mature plants in production, though this will need to be adjusted based on environmental conditions and plant uptake of nutrients. By monitoring the EC of the solution being provided to the crop and the EC of the leachate, you can determine how to adjust fertilizer strength. One important consideration is that as plants transition from flowering to fruit production, the nutrient solution composition should be adjusted in addition to EC. Developing fruits increase the demand for potassium and calcium, so the proportion of these nutrients in the fertilizer should increase as well.
Fig. 2. Stone wool or coconut coir slabs are the most common system used for producing hydroponic tomatoes. These plants are being grown in stone wool.
Photo: Christopher J. Currey
Temperature: Recommended temperatures for producing tomatoes are a 75° F during the day and 65° F at night. Temperatures should not go below 54° F to avoid excessive delays in growth. Similarly, day temperatures should not exceed 86° F, as temperatures above this can cause flowers to abort and decrease yield.
Light: Tomatoes require high light (> 20 mol·m–2·d–1) to maximize productivity and there are several ways in which this can be achieved. First, glass is the preferred glazing material for greenhouses used for tomato production since it has the highest light transmission of any material (up to 93% ambient light transmitted). Also, keeping the glazing material clean can help maximize light transmission. Once transmission of ambient light is maximized, the only way to increase light in the greenhouse is to use supplemental lighting. Both high-pressure sodium lights and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can be used to provide supplemental light to tomatoes, with each technology having distinct benefits and applications. For overhead lighting, HPS lamps may be a better choice than LEDs for tomato production. When used above a tomato crop, the radiant heat from HPS lamps can promote transpiration and, therefore, calcium uptake; ultimately, this can help reduce the incidence of blossom end rot during low-light times of the year. Alternatively, LEDs are most useful for inter-canopy lighting (Fig. 1) and promoting photosynthesis in functional leaves that are simply shaded by other plants; the lack of radiant heat in LED light allows for them to be placed close to plant foliage without burning the foliage of the canopy interior. A combination of overhead HPS and inter-canopy LED lighting can be a successful combination for increasing productivity, though the investment in lights and expense in running them must be offset by increased yield to make it economically viable.
CO2: Mature tomato plants can consume carbon dioxide (CO2) very quickly due to the large amount of vegetative growth. This is especially true in the late fall, winter and early spring when ventilation and replenishment of CO2 in the greenhouse from outside air is limited. Therefore, during these times supplemental CO2 should be provided to plants. Maintaining a CO2 concentration of ~1,000 ppm from liquid injection or burners can enhance growth and, ultimately, yield.
Christopher is an assistant professor of horticulture in the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University. ccurrey@iastate.edu
Food for every consumer
2018 State of the Industry Report - Cover story research
A new market offers personalized food trends, from delivery to vegan and paleo diets, and more.
Time-pressed, foodie and health-focused consumers are constantly looking for ways to get the produce they want and need, when they want and need it. We see the produce industry — and disruptors — adjusting to, adapting and pushing these trends. It does this by providing locally sourced product, adopting traceability protocols and implementing new scanning and delivery technologies at the retail stage.
Consumer demand is high for food fitting into a specific niche or diet, such as local, organic, vegetarian, vegan, paleo and peanut-free. Gluten-free is one example of a food trend of the diet-conscious consumer. In 2016, Jama Internal Medicine published an article, based on research performed between 2009 and 2014, that showed more people are embracing gluten-free diets, although the presence of celiac disease has remained steady over that same timeframe.
It’s hard to talk about the personalization of produce without mentioning Amazon, which purchased Whole Foods in 2017. The retail giant’s grocery delivery service, AmazonFresh, sells perishable and nonperishable products to customers in select U.S. states and certain cities worldwide, accommodating the time constraints of busy consumers. In March 2018, Walmart announced it would begin offering its own delivery service called Walmart Grocery Delivery, which it plans to make available to more than 40 percent of U.S. households by the end of the year.
With this in mind, we kept a watchful eye on consumer markets as we compiled this year’s 2018 State of the Industry Report. We’ve also provided you with the latest statistics about commercial production space, growing systems, pests and diseases and more. Do you have an anecdote about how your produce operation is adjusting to changing consumer demands? Drop us a line at pwilliams@gie.net to keep us up to date.
How we did it
The data on these pages was collected via an online survey from July 30 to August 11, 2018.
The survey was closed for tabulation with 224 responses. To best represent the audience of interest, the results in the report were based on the 115 respondents who indicated that they work for an operation that grows finished produce and/or edible crop transplants under cover.
The response was tabulated and a report was prepared by Produce Grower’s editorial staff in accordance with accepted research standards and practices.
More of this year’s survey respondents are opting for large footprints of 50,000 square feet or more. This indicates that growers are willing to take bigger and bolder moves when it comes to expanding production space.
Switches from large vining, fruiting crops to more lettuces and leafy greens reflect a change to produce that is a cornerstone of various trendy diets. What’s more, lettuce and leafy greens have a shorter turnaround and earlier harvest time than tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, so growers can more frequently sell these crops to retailers and consumers who constantly demand local and fresh product.
Meanwhile, there has been a decline in the number of common greenhouse fruiting crops being grown — tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplants. Compared to last year’s numbers, the number of grower respondents who produce these crops decreased by 19%, 23% and 21%, respectively. Similarly, hot peppers dropped 25% from last year, and sweet/bell peppers (formerly listed as just “sweet peppers”) fell 27%.
Direct-to-consumer sales of finished produce increased 4%, sales of finished produce to grocery food store retailers increased 14% and sales of finished produce to mass merchants increased 6%, from 2017. These increases, along with an 18% increase in the sale of finished produce to restaurants, suggest shifts in catering to more customers’ individual wants and needs and to the types of retailers that respond to those preferences via personalized offerings.
A sizable percentage of grower respondents (26%) said they do not have transplant customers. Meanwhile, edible crop transplant direct-to-consumer sales decreased 8% from last year. It is possible that more end-consumers would rather purchase finished produce than grow their own.
Sales of both edible crop transplants and finished produce to independent garden centers have remained steady over the past year. In 2012, edibles accounted for 27% of increases in sales at garden centers, but in 2017, that number dropped to 8% as sales of succulents grew, according to sister publication Garden Center magazine’s 2017 State of the Industry Report. However, this could reflect an increased demand for trendy ornamental crops at IGCs just as much as it could be a decreased demand for produce.
Economics of urban ag
Departments - Urban Agriculture
Targeting high-value, niche markets or products, and adapting a social business model can help urban greenhouses derive profit.
Editor's note: This article series is from the Resource Management in Commercial Greenhouse Production Multistate Research Project.
Urbanized agriculture is gaining momentum in response to increasing demands for locally produced fresh vegetables. Greenhouse or indoor vegetable production to meet local demands is the backbone for this evolving scenario. The viability of various indoor crop cultivation options demands proper documentation to guide appropriate recommendations that fit different production circumstances for growers.
Recently a popular trend toward eating local, deemed being a locavore, evidenced by a growing social movement, has evolved (Osteen, et al., 2012). While the benefits of buying food locally are debated due to the economics of comparative advantages, consumer groups support urban agriculture for a number of reasons, such as to support local farmers; to provide local, fresh food in inner city deserts; to buy fresh food; to know from where their food is coming; and to respect the environment (Peterson, et al., 2015). Specifically, one study found that 66 percent of those surveyed welcomed more local food options because local food supports local economies (Scharber and Dancs, 2015).
Many consumers also cite environmental impacts as a reason to buy local, evidenced by one study finding that environmental factors were an important reason to buy locally grown food for 61 percent of those surveyed (Scharber and Dancs, 2015; Reisman, 2012). Another popular reason is to reduce food insecurity. USDA defines food insecurity as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (USDA ERS, 2017). Buying locally grown food can reduce food insecurity in that having local farms provides consumers who might not have previously had access to fresh produce the opportunity to purchase it. Some urban farms make a point of targeting food insecurity, and having local farms allows a city to rely less heavily on external markets to feed its population. Despite debate of realized benefits, consumers eat local food to feel good about it (Scharber and Dancs, 2015).
The low supply of special varieties such as these microgreens can drive a higher price to help cover the high costs of running a greenhouse.
Photo courtesy of Robin G. Brumfield
High capital costs
Regardless of the strength of their consumer base, the number of urban farms is still low due to the high costs that urban farmers face compared to rural farmers. Not only is the land more expensive, but also the limited plot size and probable contamination of the land with lead and toxins essentially necessitates the use of a greenhouse with high investment costs. Cost challenges that many urban greenhouse farmers face include securing funding, finding economies of scale, and facing high capital and operating costs. The energy necessary to heat a greenhouse through the winter makes utility costs high, the most productive greenhouse technologies are expensive, and land is of much higher value in cities than in rural areas (Reisman, 2012). Not to mention, the initial infrastructure cost involved in building a greenhouse is much higher than the costs that farmers growing in a field face. The costs of urban greenhouses vary greatly depending on size and type. The construction of, for example, a hydroponic greenhouse entails costs for site preparation, construction, heating and cooling equipment, thermostats and controls, an irrigation system, a nutrient tank, and a growing system (Filion, et al., 2015).
Another problem with growing in cities is shade from tall buildings and skyscrapers. Jenn Frymark, chief greenhouse officer at Gotham Greens, cites this as the primary reason that the business built rooftop greenhouses. This creates its own set of problems and increases costs compared to standard greenhouses on the ground. Other urban producers address the shade problem in cities by producing in buildings using vertical agriculture and artificial lights. However, this increases the costs even further because of the need for light all year. These high costs keep the number of urban farms small.
Marketing: quality optimization, high-value plant products, year-round production
Due to these high costs, urban greenhouses must derive profit in creative ways, such as targeting high-value niche products or markets, and producing year-round. Targeting niche products and markets allows urban farmers to charge a premium that covers the added costs of operating in the city. Targeting a niche product could entail producing special varieties of vegetables, like how Brooklyn Grange, a successful New York City-based greenhouse, grows microgreens and heirloom tomatoes. The low supply of these special varieties can drive a higher price to help cover the high costs of the greenhouse. To increase profitability, farmers can also find a high-end market (Sace, 2015).
Targeting a niche market could entail selling produce to high-end restaurants and supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, whose customers are already expecting to pay a premium price, or it could entail marketing produce specifically to locavores. In fact, one study found that, for example, consumers were willing to pay a $1.06 price premium on one pound of locally grown, organic tomatoes. In the same study, the researchers also found that urban consumers were more likely to buy locally grown produce, compared with rural consumers (Yue and Tong, 2009). The high costs associated with living in a large city means that cities have a high concentration of people who can afford to eat local in this way, and the demographics of large cities translate to a high concentration of people who also see value in eating locally produced food. Together, these create a market of locavores willing and able to pay a premium for locally grown produce.
By targeting niche products and markets, urban greenhouse farmers can take advantage of existing high-end markets to cover their relatively high costs. Since these producers use greenhouses, and a few use indoor facilities, they can produce year-round, thus providing a constant supply and a steady demand for their products.
Harlem Grown in New York gives students the opportunity to learn about agriculture and the food system in a hands-on nature.
Photo: Instagram: @harlemgrown
Agricultural jobs in urban settings and other social values
Adapting a social business model can open urban farmers up to alternate sources of funding. They may want to provide jobs to disadvantaged groups such as low-income inner-city dwellers, or people with autism. Some of these businesses have reduced labor costs through volunteerism, as individuals may be willing to volunteer on a farm that supports a social issue (Reisman, 2012). Some examples of causes that urban greenhouse social businesses focus on include education, research, the environment and food security. Harlem Grown in New York adds an educational component to the greenhouse, namely the opportunity for students to learn about agriculture and the food system in a hands-on nature, allowing the greenhouse to become eligible for funding from schools, governmental programs or donors particularly interested in education.
Targeting niche markets or products, adopting a social business model and finding inexpensive plots of land can help urban greenhouses derive profit.
Graphic: Charlotte Singer
Other urban greenhouses can, for example, pitch themselves to city dwellers as an environmentally friendly alternative to commercial farms, using less fuel for transportation and fewer chemicals. This could again render the greenhouse eligible to new sources of funding. AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey, has adapted a combination of the previous two models. It uses environmentally friendly techniques and collaborate with Philip’s Academy Charter School (Boehm, 2016).
Greenhouses can additionally focus their business models on alleviating food insecurity by providing fresh produce to urban food deserts (US. New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 2013). Unlike the previous cases, greenhouses that choose to focus on alleviating food insecurity would not be able to additionally use the method of targeting high-end markets, unless they make an effort to use the high-end markets to subsidize the cost of providing their produce to food deserts. An example of an urban farm targeting food insecurity is World Hunger Relief Inc. in Waco, Texas, which brings produce grown in its greenhouse to food deserts in the City of Waco at a market or discount cost. What these three options share is a business model that incorporates multiple bottom lines, which allows them access to new funding and volunteer labor to reduce costs.
As consumers increasingly look to eat locally produced food, for reasons such as to support the local economy, to protect the environment, to change food deserts and to understand better where food is coming from, urban agriculture is becoming a growing trend. Targeting high-value, niche markets or products, and adopting a social business model to provide agricultural jobs in urban areas, constitute some of the ways urban greenhouses to derive profit in a capital-intensive industry. By utilizing these techniques, individuals looking to start their own urban greenhouses can add value to their business and derive profit.
Robin is a Professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where she has been the Farm Management Extension Specialist since 1988. She is internationally known for her work in greenhouse economics. brumfiel@njaes.rutgers.edu
Charlotte is senior economics, mathematics, and statistics major in the Rutgers University Honors College and worked on urban agriculture through the Aresty Research Assistant Program. cts86@scarletmail.rutgers.edu
References:
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Filion, Nicole, Carly Wine, and Eli Turkel. 2015. Urban Farm Complex Research. University of Delaware Center for Research in Education and Social Policy, Apr. 2015.
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Photo: Ray Solotki
