Metropolis Farms: What is Vertical Farming and How Can it Help Philly?

Meet the Disruptor: Urban center Farms

Ex-banker Jack Griffin wants to turn Philadelphia into the vertical farming majuscule of the world, bringing both cheap healthy nutrient and thousands of jobs to his hometown

Oct. 26, 2016

If you're a wide-eyed urbanist, you may have seen the online mockups of towering Jetson-esque pod-farms drafted upwardly every bit a template for vertical farming, possessing as much infinite as skyscrapers, with mighty oaks exploding toward the dominicus 500 anxiety from the ground. A darling notion, only that ain't what'due south happening, at to the lowest degree non yet: Metropolis Farms, Philly'south only vertical farming outfit, sits in a depression, unassuming building in South Philly, not far from Tony Luke's or IKEA.

Merely it could be the seed of something huge.

"We're looking to completely change the organisation," says Jack Griffin. Griffin is the president of Metropolis Farms. Equally it stands, City is ane of but a scattering of vertical farms in the U.S., and the first certified-vegan vertical farming outfit in the land.

Griffin, a erstwhile merchant banker originally from Philadelphia, says that he has been obsessed with the concept of vertical farming for years, e'er since turning down a vertical farming outfit for a loan several years ago. He opened Metropolis Farms after two years of planning, research and development last February. Although his outfit currently employs fewer than 10 people, he plans to grow his staff to around 100 past the end of 2022 with coming business concern expansions. Griffin says that he'south already turning a profit in his vertical farming business, only that's nearly beside the indicate: The man has big plans for the time to come of the exploding manufacture.

Griffin sees Philadelphia non merely as the home base for City Farms, but as its international hub: R&D will be conducted in Philadelphia; people will come from around the world to railroad train every bit vertical farmers here; nearly the entirety of the manufacturing will be done in Philadelphia.

Farmers around the earth are utilizing new techniques to abound larger crops in more than challenging environments than in the past. Israeli farmers accept pioneered growing crops from the desert; California farmers are looking to the ancients for ways to solve their water woes; community farming in U.S. cities has exploded in recent years. With skillful reason: Our population is growing at a massive clip, with an estimated 10 billion people due to be on the planet past 2050. Keeping all of us fed is going to be one of our biggest challenges—especially when abundant state is beingness gobbled upward by drought and desertification, and climatic change is having an increasingly brutal effect on U.S. crops. And cities, which people are gravitating toward at a virtually unprecedented rate, lack virtually any agricultural infrastructure.

In response, Metropolis is attempting to pioneer modular vertical farming apparati, to be manufactured in Philadelphia. Griffin says that one of his modular vertical farming towers would price somewhere betwixt $xvi,000 and $17,000, and that a full assortment of xxx would cost effectually $500,000. Compare that to, say, the Aerofarms indoor farming project in Newark, N.J., the premier vertical farming installation on the east coast, which cost $30 one thousand thousand to build.

Griffin says that he'southward "sitting on at least $x million" in potential contracts for his vertical farming system, and that he'due south drawn involvement from investors as far away as Moscow.

That'due south because vertical farming, if washed right, is a no-brainer of a civic investment. The procedure requires considerably less free energy than traditional farming. At that place is no heavy equipment involved; no backhoe or tractor fleet is needed. The virtually dramatic up-forepart cost is the lighting and rigging.

Produce growing in a greenhouse at Metropolis Farms.

Vertical farms are indoors, which means farmers tin create perfect growing conditions, letting them abound crops all yr, and harvest at a faster charge per unit than traditional farms. A properly sterile environment is too allowed to bugs and diseases that plague traditional crops, so there's no demand for pesticides and germicides.

What's more: Locally sourcing your food means significantly lower transportation costs. Transportation costs are a main driver behind the high price of produce, and the length of the transportation procedure can severely diminish a production's shelf life. If the number of loftier-volume vertical farms increased dramatically in cities, it would obviate the demand to cart produce in from far and wide; hypothetically, y'all could U-Booty the crop from South Philly to the Trader Joe'southward in Middle City (or Whole Foods, which Metropolis Farms currently supplies).

"Instead of existence a customer, we have to get our own supplier," says Griffin of Philadelphia. "That style, we tin can proceed our money moving inside our own city."

Investors are clamoring to go far on all that vertical activity, with the market for vertical farming expected to expand to roughly $three.9 billion by 2020. That's a lot of light-green for a lot of dark-green.

And so vertical farming may still save the earth and brand a bonzer profit. Only what can it do for Philly, the poorest big city in the country? The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 11 per centum of households in Philadelphia are food insecure; according to the Hunger Coalition, 1 in four people in Philadelphia is at run a risk for hunger. "The trouble is food access," says Griffin.

Griffin says that one of his modular vertical farming towers would cost somewhere between $16,000 and $17,000, and that a full assortment of 30 would cost around $500,000. Compare that to, say, the Aerofarms indoor farming project in Newark, N.J., the premier vertical farming installation on the east declension, which cost $30 million to build.

Metropolis Farms has a plan to boxing malnutrition and hunger in a novel fashion, even before vertical farming becomes commonplace. Griffin has set up a nonprofit, chosen Grandma's—a name that he got from a friend—and says he is in the process of negotiating with SEPTA to donate ii busses. The buses are going to exist converted into "mobile markets" for vegan meals, and deployed into low-income areas—including his sometime neighborhood in North Philly. "We're going to develop low-price, highly-nutritious—only they too have to exist really tasty—meals. No one wants to survive on McDonald's hamburgers, but when that'due south all that's effectually, that's all you buy," he says.

Grandma'southward will accept SNAP benefits, and Griffin's goal is for the meals to cost less than your average fast food meal. He says that he's already talking with "top chefs" in Philly nigh the project. Only that's only the brusk-term play to share the profits of the vertical farming revolution with Philly.

Metropolis Farms wants to proceed vertical farming development in Philly. Griffin sees Philadelphia not simply as the home base of operations for Metropolis Farms, but equally its international hub: If Griffin gets his wish, R&D will be conducted in Philadelphia, assisted by the biggest brains from Penn, Villanova, and Drexel; people will come from around the world to railroad train equally vertical farmers in Philadelphia; nearly the entirety of the manufacturing of Metropolis Farms' modular vertical farming product will be done in Philadelphia.

Ultimately, Griffin hopes, Philadelphia will be able to maintain a cocky-sustaining, local agricultural organisation and be able to supply low-income citizens with high-quality, low cost fruits and vegetables as a result.

That'southward however a ways off. For now, Griffin says the focus is on making vertical farming assisting and available to investors, also equally improving the product.

"We're making it then that maybe, in the future, some kid will be able to develop those skyscrapers with oak copse shooting out of them," he says.

Header photograph by Jason Sherman for Urban center Farms

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/jack-griffin-metropolis-farms/