Unfold, a company that combines leading seed genetics with crop growing and agronomic expertise to advance the vertical farming industry, announced that David Nothmann has joined their leadership team as chief operating officer.
Consumers worldwide have been seeking healthier options in the form of fresh and local produce, and this desire has grown during the pandemic. Vertical farming holds immense promise to meet this demand and the greater food needs of the world's growing population. Moving toward its promise of pushing the vertical farming industry to realize the true potential of plants, as COO, Nothmann will work closely with Unfold's customers and technical team to bring to market new seed varieties and digital solutions specifically for the industry.
“As we accelerate, we’re ready to take our products and solutions to the market,” said John Purcell, Ph.D., CEO of Unfold. “David’s expertise will play a pivotal role in making this possible as we continue to develop our customer relationships and drive to open the doors to our R&D facility early next year.”
Nothmann comes to Unfold with more than two decades of executive-level B2B and B2C experience in agriculture and food production. He will leverage his expertise in commercializing technology to drive Unfold's marketing strategy and grow the team as it enters this next phase of growth. Throughout his career, he has had a strong interest and focus on sustainability, which is a big part of why he decided to join Unfold and explore the vertical farming sector.
“I’ve launched more than 50 unique products and services across eight countries during my career. I’m excited to be able to bring together my passion for sustainability with my strengths of commercializing technology and growing businesses to Unfold and its customers,” said David Nothmann, COO of Unfold. “I’m committed to taking the best parts of my prior experiences to form an inclusive learning environment that is hyper-focused on customers while also building a fantastic work environment for our team.”
Nothmann previously served in C-Suite and leadership roles at Terramera, Valent LLC (a Sumitomo Chemical subsidiary), Battelle and ArborGen. He started his career at Monsanto and currently serves as independent director on the board for the startup 3Bar Biologics as well as on the advisory board of AgroSpheres. While Nothmann has led and participated in dozens of negotiations ranging from acquisitions, divestitures, product development agreements, and licensing and commercial arrangements, one of his biggest accomplishments is supporting and growing the careers of his peers.
Nothmann holds an MBA and European Management Certificate from New York University and a bachelor's degree from Tufts University. He served on the board of directors of Agriculture Future of America and was a founding member and former president of the Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology.
Springworks Farm announces exclusive whole head romaine deal
Aquaponically grown, certified organic lettuce from Lisbon, Maine, will save up to 6 days of travel and thousands of food miles vs. field-grown lettuce from California, Arizona, and Mexico.
Springworks Farm, the largest and first certified organic aquaponic farming operation in New England (and the subject of Produce Grower's August 2021 cover story), today announced that it is now the exclusive provider of whole head romaine lettuce to Hannaford Supermarkets in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
In contrast to lettuce grown in California, Arizona, and Mexico that spends up to six days in a truck, Springworks Farm’s certified organic lettuce travels just 34 miles from its aquaponic greenhouse facilities in Lisbon to Hannaford’s distribution center in South Portland. The savings of nearly 3,500 food miles means greater sustainability for the environment and a higher quality product for Hannaford consumers.
“Because our romaine lettuce arrives on Hannaford’s shelves in hours instead of days, consumers are getting a product that’s fresher and more nutritious,” Springworks Farm founder and president Trevor Kenkel explained. “Best of all, it’s certified organic.”
Springworks Farm is already Hannaford’s exclusive supplier of certified organic Green Leaf lettuce. The company also supplies all 184 Hannaford stores with Baby Romaine lettuce and Boston Bibb, plus an assortment of pre-cut products in select stores, including Single Cut Romaine, Single Cut Boston Bibb, and Salad Mix. Pre-cut products offer consumers greater convenience by eliminating prep work, in addition to their sustainability, taste, and nutrient benefits.
“By partnering with local farms like Springworks, Hannaford is doing the right thing for Maine’s economy and its residents,” Hannaford Produce Category Manager Mark Jewell said. “When we order from Springworks, we eliminate thousands of food miles while contributing to our company’s sustainability goals and supporting a local business. It’s a win for our company, but more importantly, it’s a win for our consumers who are getting a fresher, tastier, and certified organic product.”
This announcement comes three months after Springworks Farm opened its third 40,000 square foot greenhouse. In addition to delivering the necessary growing capacity for whole head romaine that is available exclusively at Hannaford, Greenhouse 3 is enabling the company to test new products and increase overall production.
“This launch comes at a particularly exciting time for Springworks Farm,” Vice President Sierra Kenkel said. “Three weeks ago, Trevor was one of seven business leaders recognized by Maine Biz on their Next List and two weeks ago, our company received the People’s United Bank Innovation & Technology Award from the Institute for Family-Owned Business. We’re extremely grateful for these honors and more motivated than ever to change the way lettuce is grown.”
Spring Born Farms hires new marketing director, head grower
The Colorado-based organic operation grows greens in a 2.5-acre facility.
Spring Born, a 2.5-acre organic greenhouse in Colorado, announced in a press release that it has added Danielle Davis as its new director of marketing and sales and Josh Budka as its new head grower.
Davis, per the release,” is a food systems, marketing, and sales expert with more than a decade of experience within fresh produce, meat, and seafood” with experience at other CEA operations. Ludka, on the other hand, graduated Purdue University with a Horticulture Science degree and worked at various indoor farming operations and conducted research for universities and governmental agencies.
Spring Born’s initial retail and foodservice offerings are grown in organic peat (unique in the CEA industry) using 90% less water than large-scale outdoor farms. It is a fully automated and USDA-certified organic indoor farm in the Intermountain West and is wholly owned and operated by Charles Barr. It is not yet officially growing product in the greenhouse.
Local Bounti on track to go public in late 2021
The company also announced progress on different building projects.
In a press release, indoor ag company Local Bounti announced a series of updates.
Per the company’s announcement, Local Bounti has expanded its retail presence by beginning to work with Albertsons, one of the country’s largest grocery chains. The grower’s products will be sold in 84 stores in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Oregon. That means the company has its products at over 500 retail locations.
Additionally, Local Bounti announced that it has built out its main facility in Hamilton, Montana ahead of schedule. The company also acquired 20 acres of land near the location for a planned, but yet to be built, research and development facility. In the release, Local Bounti that is under contract for a facility in Nevada and that two other planned locations - one in Colorado, one in Pasco, Washington - are on track to be completed.
2021, per the release, also saw the company release its spring mix, bringing its SKU number to eight. There are plans to add spinach, arugula and other products to the mix in the first half of 2022.
Lastly, the company announced that it and partner Leo Holdings III is “pleased with the solid execution and significant progress achieved by Local Bounti since announcing the business combination and are thankful for the support of investors interested in the continued growth of Local Bounti. Both parties expect the planned business combination to close in the fourth quarter of 2021 to take Local Bounti public.”
"We are exceptionally pleased with our execution on multiple fronts in rapidly building our business toward fast facility and revenue scale up," said Craig Hurlbert, co-CEO of Local Bounti. "I'm proud of our Local Bounti team in making this happen and it illustrates the strength in our business model and strategy, along with demonstrating the growing appetite our retailer and consumer customers have for longer lasting, sustainably grown fresh produce. Successful completion of these initiatives further paves the way toward our plans to have the best unit economics and growth trajectory of any company in the CEA space. We also continued the forward progress with our planned business combination with Leo so we can continue our mission as a publicly traded company.”
A LettUs Grow aeroponic indoor farm.
Photo courtesy of LettUs Grow
La Serra and LettUs Grow partner in aeroponic tomato propagation trials
The two UK-based companies seek to improve tomato plant propagation.
Commercial greenhouse grower La Serra and indoor farming technology provider LettUs Grow have partnered to conduct innovative tomato propagation trials. The first aeroponic trials were conducted in LettUs Grow’s aeroponic research center in Bristol, England and the first round of transplants are now being monitored in La Serra’s greenhouses in Pershore, England. The aim of the trials is to improve the quality, consistency and sustainability of tomato plant propagation.
La Serra is a winter grower and currently harvests tomatoes nine months of the year. By working with LettUs Grow, they’re aiming to extend their harvesting season by allowing their picking to start earlier in the year. LettUs Grow’s aeroponic technology allows crops to grow up to twice as fast as hydroponic systems, which are more often seen in greenhouse settings.
Aeroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. Instead, plant roots are suspended in the air and irrigated with a nutrient-dense mist. Being able to control nutrient amounts and boosting access to oxygen levels results in much healthier plant root stock, which can accelerate early plant growth. Aeroponics also uses far less water than both outdoor and hydroponic growing systems.
The transplants were cultivated from seed using LettUs Grow’s aeroponic system in a fully controlled vertical farm environment. After approximately 30 days in aeroponics, when first flowering trusses were visible and the stems were approximately 30 cm tall, the crops were transplanted into the La Serra greenhouse. When transplanted into the greenhouse, they were moved onto an hydroponic nutrient film technique system. LettUs Grow’s transplants will be compared against La Serra’s standard transplants inside the greenhouse. Plant relative performances are being compared and monitored closely.
These commercial greenhouse trials follow on after LettUs Grow partnered with Harper Adams University to research different technologies and irrigation systems within greenhouse and vertical farming settings.
The first trial is showing good results, with an impressive rate of root growth in the transplants from the aeroponic system. Nick Arnst, general manager at La Serra, says “the plants that arrived from LettUs Grow had significant root development when compared to our conventional propagated plants. For us, the root system is key in the setting up of our crops for the year, and the aeroponic system developed by LettUs Grow has shown the benefits of strong healthy roots.”
There has also been evidence early on that LettUs Grow’s aeroponic technology has reduced propagation time, which could result in more harvests per year for tomato growers using the system. Currently, the greenhouse farming industry uses 40,000 hectare of land globally, estimated to be increasing 5% per year, so improving the efficiency and environmental impact of growing on this scale would have a huge impact on global food production.
Charlie Guy, CEO and co-founder of LettUs Grow, says “utilizing aeroponic technology within different greenhouse and propagation settings could really increase the amount of food we can produce in greenhouses, whilst also using less resources. Boosting food security and the UK’s ability to grow crops such as tomatoes would also reduce our dependence on imports.”