Vertical farming companies have committed to a Vertical Farming Identity Statement and Industry Manifesto. An unprecedented industry momentum to contribute jointly to a sustainable transformation of global food systems.
• Signing companies are 80 Acres, AeroFarms, Bowery, Crop One, CubicFarms, Elevate Farms, Fifth Season, Fischer Farms, Freight Farms, Infarm, Infinite Acres, Jones Food Company, Kalera, La Grangette, Ljusgårda, N.THING, Plenty, Stacked Farm, Urban Crop Solutions, Urban Harvest, Vertical Future, YesHealth Group and ZipGrow
• The Vertical Farming Manifesto was signed at the Vertical Farming World Congress in Brussels (September 19-21).
Brussels, September 20, 2022 – Leading vertical farming companies signed the first Vertical Farming Manifesto and Identity – both clear and bold industry standards.
They highlight the impact and contribution the industry intends to make to transform current food systems and help to solve one of humanity’s toughest challenges of providing food for a growing population in a sustainable, circular way.
The Vertical Farming Identity and the Manifesto describe the urgency of transforming current food systems and explain how vertical farming systems can contribute significantly to designing food systems which are resilient and future-proof. Through technological innovation, indoor vertical farming decouples food production from external factors like climate or public health crises.
By localizing production and controlling the growing environment, vertical farming provides pesticide-free produce, uses significantly less land and water, and requires fewer transportation miles.
Toward the industry’s goal of driving the transformation of food systems, the companies strive to set high standards by aligning with globally accepted impact frameworks, for example, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), B Corp, or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Furthermore, the industry is dedicated to continuously investing in research and development to improve vertical farming technology and grow even smarter and more sustainable food systems.
From the farms:
• 80 Acres Farms: “As money pours into the vertical farming industry and media attention follows, it has never been more important for us to define who we are and what we stand for. Our customers trust that we grow as sustainably as possible, ensuring a consistent food supply for generations to come. With this manifesto, we are affirming that as an industry.” –Mike Zelkind, CEO, 80 Acres Farms.
• AeroFarms: “Since Day 1, AeroFarms has been proud to pioneer and lead indoor vertical farming that has now blossomed into a major force to address our agriculture and climate challenges. As Certified B Corp, we are proud to serve as a catalyst to advance our industry forward as a collective as we continue our mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity.” –David Rosenberg, CEO and Co-Founder, AeroFarms
• Bowery: “We believe that everyone deserves access to sustainably grown produce that gives more back to our planet than it takes,” said Katie Seawell, Chief Commercial Officer, Bowery. “We are proud to come together as an industry to build a global food supply chain that is transparent, agile and resilient so that consumers know where and how their food is grown.”
• Crop One: “For the continued existence of humanity and protection of the earth, the expansion, development and collaboration of the vertical farming industry is critical. We are proud and excited to be working together with our industry peers on the VF Identity Statement and Industry Manifesto.” –Craig Ratajczyk, CEO, Crop One
• CubicFarms: “We are running out of the resources to produce the food we need responsibly, sustainably, and affordably. We believe to protect our resources and ourselves, food and feed must be localized and grown indoors by farmers. We are proud to join and work with our industry peers to highlight the need to democratize farming and to create local independent food ecosystems now and for future generations.” –Dave Dinesen, CEO, CubicFarms
• Elevate Farms: “Elevate Farms has been committed to developing food production systems designed to produce a high volume of leafy greens at a competitive cost. We are excited to be part of the solution to use emerging technology in order to feed people for a sustainable future.” –Amin Jadavji, CEO, Elevate Farms
• Fifth Season: “Fifth Season has never shied away from thinking big or aiming high, so we’re proud to stand alongside other vertical farming companies in an effort to collectively raise the bar within our industry. Tech-driven agriculture solutions have so much potential to positively affect the global food system. We’re excited to unify with our peers to elevate the standards and do the most good for the most people together.” –Austin Webb, CEO & Co-Founder, Fifth Season
• Fischer Farms: “Fischer Farms is proud to support the Vertical Farming identity statement and industry manifesto. The ambitions of this movement have a direct synergy with our own vision – to transform current food systems and feed the world in a sustainable way. By joining forces with other leading vertical farming companies, we can champion the future of farming, safeguarding global food security.” –Tristan Fischer, CEO and Founder, Fischer Farms
• Freight Farms: “We are pleased to come together as an industry on this manifesto as the planet will require CEA to be part of the global food solution.” –Rick Vanzura, CEO, Freight Farms
• Infarm: “As a purpose-driven company, we have always been driving and advocating for the change of the current food systems. Coming together as an industry and collectively expressing our shared values in a joint identity and manifesto is truly powerful. Together, we can really make a difference and this is just the beginning. Infarm is proud to work along with industry peers on a new food system” –Erez Galonska, CEO, Infarm
• Infinite Acres: “Vertical farming technology can make fresh, local, sustainably grown food accessible to everyone. The potential is incredible, but we can only live up to it if we grow thoughtfully, taking the quality of our business practices as seriously as we do the quality of our produce. I am glad to see the industry rally around these standards.” –Tisha Livingston, CEO, Infinite Acres
• Jones Food Company: “Jones Food Company is delighted to join and contribute to the Vertical Farming identity statement and industry manifesto. As our industry continues to grow it is crucial that we, alongside our colleagues around the world, present a united vision for what we are striving to achieve. Together our voices are amplified, championing the numerous benefits of vertical farming and what we have to offer the global food system, namely; growing more of the most delicious fresh food, whilst using far fewer natural resources and bringing us closer to the food we eat.” James Lloyd- Jones CEO
• Kalera: “At the heart of our business is a strong commitment to a better world,” said Jim Leighton, President & CEO of Kalera. “We understand that we have a critical role to play in the transformation of food systems, we strive to operate at the cutting edge of sustainable agriculture, and contribute to global food security. Kalera is excited to join our industry peers and add our name to the Vertical Farming Identity Statement and Industry Manifesto.”
• La Grangette: “Vertical Farming is a complementary solution to traditional and organic agriculture. Two major trends are reshaping the way we live: we take care of both our health – especially what we eat – and our impact on the environment. These two trends are fully matching with the Vertical Farming values. With La Grangette we are proud to make a positive contribution for the next generation.” –Thibaut Pradier, CEO, La Grangette
• Ljusgårda: “As an industry, indoor vertical farming is important and necessary to create a sustainable global food system and reduce climate change. At Ljusgårda we are proud and happy to be a part of The Vertical Farming Manifesto, and together with our colleagues in the industry we are ready and able to make a big impact globally.” – Magnus Agervald, CEO, Ljusgårda
• N.THING: “It’s a significant moonshot to contribute to a resilient food system initiated with leading vertical farming companies. We do not stop our challenges to achieve optimal technologies but also, in a more sustainable value chain with no limits.” – Hyeyeon Leo Kim, CEO N.THING
• Plenty: “Indoor vertical farming will – and must – transform our food system. For that to happen, we must work together as an industry to align on a shared vision and standards,” said Dana Worth, SVP of Commercial at Plenty. “We look forward to working with others in the industry and our key stakeholders to define those standards and deliver products that are great for consumers, profitable for retailers and good for the planet.”
• Stacked Farm: “Our industry has rightly taken up the challenge to sustainably and efficiently feed our growing populations, while at the same time protecting and preserving our planet’s resources for future generations. Stacked Farm proudly puts its signature to the Vertical Farming Industry Manifesto and commits to making products that are sustainable, accessible and affordable to all people.” –Conrad Smith, CEO, Stacked Farm
• Urban Crop Solutions: “Our industry has demonstrated its early potential, but there is much yet to be realised as we continue to innovate. At Urban Crop Solutions, we continuously strive to make the entire indoor farming journey more circular, and to demonstrate our added value for new and emerging food production methods. As with any nascent industry, open and close collaboration is necessary, especially where sustainability is concerned. We are therefore proud to join our industry peers in supporting the identity statement and manifesto.” –Maarten Vandecruys, Founder, Urban Crop Solutions
• Urban Harvest: “Climate change is happening now. CEA is in our opinion part of the solution and therefore believe that the companies active in this industry should try to define a common strategy and identity. Multilayer farming, both in greenhouses and warehouses, has the potential to disrupt this market and make fresh and high quality food available all over the world.”
• Vertical Future: “Vertical Future is proud to add our name to the Vertical Farming Identity Statement and Industry Manifesto. Our company was founded to make a positive difference to the health of both people and planet and we have built a team focussed on engineering and plant science to improve the quality of crops whilst driving down the production cost, making produce from Vertical Future systems accessible to all.” –Jamie Burrows, CEO Vertical Future
• YesHealth Group: “YesHealth Group is proud to sign the Vertical Farming Industry Manifesto and help advance the industry towards our shared goals. We believe that the industry must come together and collaborate to create realistic expectations in order to make a real impact.” –Winston Tsai, CEO YesHealth Group
• ZipGrow Inc.: “ZipGrow Inc. is proud to join other international CEA industry leaders in signing this Vertical Farming Identity Statement and Industry Manifesto. As our sector solidifies itself as a mainstream form of agriculture and food production, it is essential to work together to ensure we continue to provide safe, healthy, and sustainable local food and workplaces for communities around the world.” –Eric Lang, President ZipGrow Inc.
About 80 Acres Farms
80 Acres Farms is a Hamilton, Ohio-based vertical farming company that grows fresh, local produce year-round. The company currently operates eight farms in the United States. 80 Acres Farms products—just-picked salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, microgreens, and berries—are available from a range of national and regional retailers, as well as key national foodservice distributors.
About AeroFarms
Since 2004, AeroFarms has been leading the way for indoor vertical farming and championing transformational innovation for agriculture. On a mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity, AeroFarms is a Certified B Corporation with global headquarters in Newark, New Jersey. Named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company two years in a row and one of TIME’s Best Inventions in Food, AeroFarms patented, award-winning indoor vertical farming technology provides the perfect conditions for healthy plants to thrive, taking agriculture to a new level of precision, food safety, and productivity while using up to 95% less water and no pesticides ever versus traditional field farming. AeroFarms enables local production to safely grow all year round, using vertical farming for elevated flavor.™ Its products can be found at major selling partners like Ahold Delhaize, Amazon Fresh, Baldor Specialty Food, Compass Group, Harris Teeter, Marcus BP, Momofuku Noodle Bars, ShopRite, The Fresh Market, Walmart, and Whole Foods Market. In addition, through its proprietary growing technology platform, AeroFarms has grown over 550 varieties of plants and has developed multi-year strategic partnerships ranging from government to major Fortune 500 companies to help uniquely solve agriculture supply chain needs. For additional information, visit: https://aerofarms.com/.
About Bowery
Founded in 2015, Bowery Farming is on a mission to democratize access to high-quality, local, safe, and sustainable produce. Bowery builds smart indoor farms near cities, growing fresher, pesticide-free Protected Produce with bold flavor in precisely controlled environments, 365 days a year. At the heart of the farm is the proprietary BoweryOS, which integrates software, hardware, sensors, AI, computer vision systems, machine learning models, and robotics to orchestrate and automate the entirety of its operations. As a result, each farm creates far less waste and uses a fraction of the water and land compared to traditional agriculture.
About Crop One
Headquartered in Massachusetts, USA, Crop One is a technology-driven indoor vertical farming company on a mission to cultivate a sustainable future to meet a global demand for fresh, local, and safe food. Through its Plants-First™ approach and industry-leading technology platform, Crop One grows fresh, delicious leafy greens using 95% less water than field-grown produce. Crop One sells its fresh, local produce under the FreshBox Farms label, available at a variety of retailers across southern New England.
About CubicFarms
Founded by farmers in 2015, CubicFarm Systems Corp. (CubicFarms) is developing an?automated, modular, onsite, indoor growing technology that enables farmers to grow in any climate, 365 days a year, using significantly less land, 95% less water, less energy, and less physical labour than traditional growing. Our unique, patented Crop Motion™ technology is the next level vertical farming at commercial scale. This technology maximizes cubic square footage by moving plants through the module while minimizing and recycling resource use.
About Elevate Farms
Elevate Farms Inc., a patented technology-driven vertically-stacked indoor farming ?enterprise, is developing high-yield and competitively priced leafy-green food production systems towards realizing a safe and sustainable future. With well over ??a decade ?of advanced photobiology research already deployed, we have built farms in several countries on multiple continents and offer a truly scalable global solution.
About Fifth Season
Fifth Season is a food system pioneer creating a new category of local, fresh food grown in fully-automated vertical farms. Its farms are run by proprietary software built in house, and its software and robotics system is what enabled the team at Fifth Season to deliver an unprecedented, entirely replicable farm that produces consistently fresh leafy greens and prepared salads. The company aims to decentralize the fresh food supply chain, produce fresh produce more efficiently in smaller spaces, and meet cravings for just-harvested, regionally-grown ingredients and inspired meals.
About Fischer Farms
Fischer Farms is an independent company combining agri-tech and renewable energy expertise to revolutionise the future of farming. Backed by Gresham House, an asset management company specialising in investments with a sustainable, positive impact, Fischer Farms is leading the way in scalable food production to provide a more resilient and sustainable method to feed the nation.
About Freight Farms
Founded in 2012, Freight Farms debuted the first vertical hydroponic farm built inside an intermodal shipping container with the mission of democratizing and decentralizing the local production of fresh, healthy food. Freight Farms now has the largest network of connected farms in the world, with global customers ranging from small business farmers to corporate, hospitality, retail, education, and nonprofit sectors.
About Infarm
Founded in 2013, Infarm is one of the world’s fastest-growing vertical farming companies. Partnering with more than 30 of the world’s top retail chains in 10 countries in North America, Asia, and Europe and producing a variety of more than 75 plants. The company’s modular farming systems are highly efficient, capable of growing more than 500,000 plants annually on just 40m2 of floor space. In addition to using 95% less land, Infarm requires 95% less water than traditional farming methods and uses no chemical pesticides. Infarm has committed to setting a science-based net-zero carbon target through The Science Based Targets initiative.
About Infinite Acres
Infinite Acres is a Dutch-American technology company that designs and builds vertical farms. The company’s team of indoor agriculture professionals—from engineers to plant physiologists—is committed to changing the way the world eats by building a better way to grow. Infinite Acres is a wholly owned subsidiary of 80 Acres Farms.
About Jones Food Company
Builders, farmers, grocers. Jones Food Company is a British vertical farming business and the owner/operator of Europe’s single largest vertical farm growing hundreds of tonnes of delicious herbs and leafy greens every year. Our farms grow 365 days a year using renewable energy, consume 95% less water and zero chemical pesticides bringing our customers closer to the freshest and highest quality produce
About Kalera
As a leader in controlled environment agriculture, Kalera is driven by our belief that vertical farming can play an important role in securing access to fresh produce for a growing world population facing climate change. Through our proprietary technology, we sustainably grow local, delicious, nutrient-rich, pesticide-free, non-GMO leafy greens year-round. Our automated, data-driven, hydroponic vertical farms produce higher yields and use 95% less water, and 99% less land than traditional farming. Sold under the Kalera brand, our leafy greens are “better than organic” and priced competitively, always with the end consumer in mind. Kalera is headquartered in Orlando, Florida with farms in Orlando, Atlanta, Houston, Denver, and Kuwait, and additional farms under development around the world.
About La Grangette
Founded in 2018 in France, we believed that in a close future every kitchen will be equipped with some Home farming appliances as it has been one day with fridge or oven. La Grangette is fast tracking this new market by partnership with home appliances and seed companies. Our ambition is to deliver worldwide consumables for home farming appliances.
About Ljusgårda
Swedish Ljusgårda is one of the largest indoor vertical farms in Europe. With an industrial approach the company aims to democratise sustainable and high-quality produce through large scale production and competitive consumer pricing. Ljusgårda specializes in building AI-optimised indoor ecosystems to create controlled environments with ideal growing conditions for each specific plant. Founded in 2018 and backed by reputable and long-term investors, Ljusgårda strives to become a leader in its industry.
About N.THING
Established in 2014, N.THING is a Seoul-based AgTech company leading innovation in agricultural products to the farm-to-table food system by combining IoT technology and data. It developed the world’s first scalable modular vertical farm ‘CUBE’, which is a modularized farm with mass productivity where a dedicated OS provides the most optimised environment for each crop. N.THING is a winner of Best of Innovation at the CES 2020 in Smart City category, also awarded in CES 2022 in Sustainability. Currently running vertical farms in Youngin, Andong, Icheon and in-store farm showroom ‘Sik Mul Sung Dosan’ in Korea, and Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E.
About Plenty
Plenty is rewriting the rules of agriculture through its technology platform that can grow fresh produce anywhere in the world, year round, with peak-season quality and up to 350x more yield per acre than conventional farms. Plenty’s proprietary approach preserves the world’s natural resources, makes healthy produce available to all communities and creates resilience in our food systems against weather, location, pests and climate. Plenty operates an indoor plant science research facility in Laramie, Wyoming, and is currently building an advanced, vertical, indoor farm in Compton, California, and the first indoor vertical farm campus near Richmond, Virginia. For more information, follow Plenty on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
About Stacked Farm
Stacked Farm’s unique end-to-end automation allows us to to provide high quality, cost competitive, everyday products. Our patented technology will deliver tailored solutions that exceed consumer expectations of sustainability, food safety and food quality and we will always promote the positive impact of indoor farming on the planet and its benefits for all future generations.
About Urban Crop Solutions
Urban Crop Solutions is an end-to-end indoor farming solutions provider, supporting clients with contract research trials, business planning, as well as the engineering and construction of indoor farms. Their own award-winning indoor farming solutions can be commissioned and scaled anywhere in the world, from remote islands to crowded metropoles. In its state-of-the-art UCS Research Centre, and with their proprietary PharmSpeeTM technology platform, the team of plant scientists develop recipes for applications ranging from staple foods to ingredients for cellular food products. With a library of 290+ plant growth recipes, 50+ modules deployed globally, and installations in 4 continents, UCS is the go-to partner for commercial growers and public-private research institutes.
About Urban Harvest
Founded in 2018, Urban Harvest is a no-nonsense multilayer solutions provider for the production of strawberries, anywhere and anytime. Together with industry leaders in their respective markets, Urban Harvest is not only able to ensure the performance and reliability of its systems, but also has the capabilities to execute projects worldwide. Our solutions are based on extensive commercial growing experience, valuable feedback and close relationships with customers and permanent improvements. Our company driver is to enable our customers to grow high quality strawberries anywhere at anytime.
About Vertical Future
Based in London, Vertical Future is a technology and research company, delivering a range of complex hardware, software, and infrastructure solutions for the controlled environment agriculture sector. Our team of more than 50 staff is made up of engineers, software engineers, plant scientists, and operators, all focused on system and sector-wide innovation and change. Vertical Future’s mission is to improve efficiency, output, and quality in crop production, ultimately improving the health of both the planet and its inhabitants. A Vertical Future is one where global crop production is no longer at threat, humans are healthier, and there is a better balance between population growth and the natural world.
About YesHealth Group
YesHealth Group is a Taiwan based vertical farming technology pioneer with a mission to transform agriculture and advance people’s health through the use of innovative vertical farming technology. YesHealth Group has over the past decade persistently pushed the technological boundaries and become a front runner in the vertical farming industry. As a result, YesHealth Group has been named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum for its contribution in healthy and sustainable food production.
About ZipGrow Inc
ZipGrow Inc. is an international leader in indoor vertical farming technology, empowering people to grow fresh food locally and sustainably. Our flagship product, the ZipGrowTM Tower, is a core component of many of the world’s most innovative farms. Our technologies support entrepreneurs, non-profits, home growers, schools, and research centers, and is backed by the support of in-house master growers, engineers, and an extensive offering of hydroponic education.
