What Will 2017 Bring for Indoor Ag? - AgFunderNews

Today's story highlight comes from Nicola Kerslake, founder of Newbean Capital, via Agfunder. Kerslake looks back at 2016, and has some major predictions for 2017. Take a look! "For all of the year’s many horrors, 2016 was a banner year for indoor agriculture, the practice of growing crops in hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic systems in greenhouses, warehouses, and containers. The fledgling industry saw record investment fueling a wave of new indoor farm builds, innovative business models, and technology introductions. Highlights included the launch of Square Roots, a Kimbal Musk-backed social-benefit endeavor to incubate new urban farmers utilizing Freight Farms’ container farms, and the inauguration of Aerofarms’s long-anticipated Camden, NJ vertical farm. The latter is notable because it uses aeroponics — misting plant roots with a nutrient-rich solution, rather than submerging them in water – and this is typically considered a trickier technology to implement commercially than the more common hydroponics. The upside is, in theory at least, more efficient growing. Both Freight Farms and AeroFarms raised equity from private investors during 2016, contributing to the $50m+ raised from private investors in the US last year." Click here to see Kerslake's six ‘big themes’ for the 2017. https://agfundernews.com/will-2017-bring-indoor-ag.html

Door to Door Organics replaces Relay Foods in Mid-Atlantic

We are starting to share some interesting highlights we are seeing in the food industry. I particularly like this one because it's an interesting example of the massive growth delivery services are seeing. Once drone delivery becomes common place, these companies will be expanding everywhere. Local grown salads ability to provide these companies fresh local product means you can be eating salad harvested that very day ordered and delivered for supper. A vast improvement in taste, nutrition and sustainability. Today's story highlight is on Relay Foods and its new parent company, Door to Door Organics. The report itself focuses on the changes to Relay Foods, but of particular interest to us were the points about Door to Door Organics success to date. "Relay Foods, an online-only grocery delivery service operating in a handful of Mid-Atlantic markets, is retiring its name and adopting the go-to-market strategy of its new parent company, Door to Door Organics. Door to Door Organics was founded in 1997 and provides grocery delivery to markets primarily in the West and Midwest. Customers go online to select a box of organic produce — all-fruit, all vegetable, or a mix — in one of four sizes, then add from a selection of grocery items to complete their order. The 'Good Food Shop' grocery selection features natural and locally sourced products, according to the company’s website, and includes dry grocery products, baked goods, dairy, frozens, meats and seafood, and nonfood items. Internet Retailer estimated Door to Door’s sales volume at $43 million in 2015, up 26.5% over 2014 levels. The companies said at the time of their merger announcement last June that they would serve 63 markets in 18 states." Read the complete article at http://www.supermarketnews.com/online-retail/door-door-organics-replaces-relay-foods-mid-atlantic

Cilantro named as source of summer E. coli outbreak | The Packer

Food Safety Concerns Pose Serious Risk to Our Health Food safety is the highest priority for Local Grown Salads. The following story demonstrates how complex a problem it can be, and why Local Grown Salads is designing its equipment and its processes to, first and foremost, maximize food safety. We use the latest and most current advanced technologies to reduce the risk of contamination in any of our facilities. Chicago health officials say cilantro at a particular restaurant, Carbon Live Fire Mexican Grill, caused a summer E. coli outbreak that may have caused 100 people to fall ill. The bacteria were not found in the restaurant’s cilantro or even at the distributor, however. Some of the officials involved in the investigation say there may have been some cross contamination which lead to the spread of the outbreak, based on the number of cases of illness when associated with raw cilantro consumption. The department identified 69 confirmed cases and 37 probable cases as part of the outbreak. Twenty-two people were hospitalized. For the 55 primary cases, illness onset dates ranged from June 19 to July 3. The cilantro came to the restaurant from a distributor that bought the product from multiple sources, including suppliers in Illinois and Mexico, but couldn’t be traced back further. Sixteen of 40 food handlers tested were positive for E. coli, according to the report, and the supplement to the report noted “several critical violations” including improper temperatures for several food items and improper hand hygiene practices. “In the absence of confirmed cases reporting consumption of implicated food items from another restaurant, it was not possible to perform further traceback to assess for a common source of contamination,” the department said in the supplement to the report. “No other restaurants serviced by the distributor were linked to the outbreak.” Read the full report at http://www.thepacker.com/news/cilantro-named-source-summer-e-coli-outbreak

Food Safety Concerns Pose Serious Risk to Our Health

Our reasons for pushing food safety keep on coming! http://localgrownsalads.com/2017/01/02/food-safety-concerns-pose-serious-risk-to-our-health/

Canada South Science City Invites Local Grown Salads Founder, Zale Tabakman, as its 2017 Distinguished Visitor!

We are so excited to finally announce this amazing partnership! We look forward to you visiting us at Science City in Windsor in 2017!

We've begun planting at the new Development and Demonstration Centre in Windsor, Ontario! We're ready to push our testing into overdrive, with expanded production yield testing, shelf life testing, and preparing the groundwork for our first full-fledged Growing Centre! To start, we're replanting some of our earlier cultivars, and some new ones. Take a look at this! We're growing: Arugula Moss Curled Parsley Rhubarb Chard (and other Rainbow Chard varieties) Genovese (Pesto) Basil Ella Dill Chives Sorrel Red Russian Kale Tuscano (Lacinato) Kale Vates Kales Sugar Daddy Snap Peas Oregon Sugar Peas Cilantro Nasturtium Red Sails Leaf Lettuce Summer Savoy Smooth Leaf Spinach Butterfly Spinach Jalapeno Peppers Garnett Stem Italian Dandelion Salad Bowl Oakleaf Lettuce Dark Red Lollo Rosso Lettuce Persian Cress Mibuna Asian Greens Tatsoi Asian Greens Garnet Giant Mustard Greens

We started planting in Windsor! 12 different cultivars!

David Wolfe

The world is changing. Aldi is a big European brand moving into the USA.

Reina Cárdenas Noticias Univision 21

Here is how your celery is harvested now. Notice: 1) its bagged in the field. 2) the volume of what is bagged from that one field. The same field that animals, birds, ect. did their business on. This is why food safety is a large issue. Wash your vegetables!!!!

TED-Ed

This short video from TED explains the need and purpose of Pesticides and some of their problems. Its a great promotion video for indoor growing. In indoor growing we remove the need for pesticides by simply keeping the insects outside through air filters and doors.

Lake Erie 'impaired' by algae blooms, Michigan says

Farmers do their best, but they can't control what happens to excess fertilizer. And this is the result. Runoff is an important element about the sustainability of agriculture. Its not sustainable method of growing if you are destroying or hurting the environment beyond your farm. Indoor farms use exactly what is needed and there is no runoff. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/algae-lake-erie-michigan-1.3846249

FSMA Final Rule on Produce Safety

Food is going to become much safer (in the USA and, by extension, probably Canada) starting in 2020. It also represents a huge opportunity... The FDA has introduced the FSMA - Food Safety Modernization Act. By 2020 everyone involved in the production and sale of food will need a significantly higher level of food safety traceability and testing. The traceability requirement will start at the retailer level, requiring retailers to have documentation from each of their suppliers (distributors, raw food processors, etc.), even the smallest ones. In turn, that will require each of the them to have their own tracable documentation from all their suppliers, working its way back to even the smallest farm (with some exemptions). The Act will also require a level of testing that most farms don't currenlty do. Given how many farms operate, it will be a complicated and an almost impossible task. To put it simply, by the end of 2020, vertical/indoor farming has to be a reality or supplies to retailers will begin to dry up. (Smallest farms have till 2023) http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA/ucm334114.htm