Name: Drought Diet Products

Legal Name: Drought Diet Products

Location: Hawaiian Gardens, California

Founded: 2016

Founder: Joseph Gallegos

Website: www.droughtdietproducts.com

Social Media Following: 15 Followers on LinkedIn

Industry – Smart Agriculture Technology

Size: $4.50 billion in 2015 (Source: Analysis of the Smart Agriculture Technology Market)

Projections: $9.00 billion by 2020 (CAGR of 14.8%) (Source: Analysis of the Smart Agriculture Technology Market)

Introduction

Drought Diet Products is a disruptive agricultural technology company that focuses on delivering products and solutions that enhance water-efficiency, thereby helping to alleviate future stress on the world’s most precious resource. Their Aquifer Pipe is their trademark product that was created when the team started to witness increasing groundwater stress in California. 

The Product

Drought Diet Products’ Aquifer Pipe is reinventing the irrigation paradigm for agriculture by conserving more than 50% water usage and 60% energy consumption over current traditional irrigation methods such as sprinklers and drip irrigation. It is a subsurface wicking system creating a virtual water table at the buried depth of the Aquifer Pipe. 

By applying water at the roots of the plant, the pipe helps avoid loss of water from evaporation and over-spraying. The system also affects labor, energy/water nexus, and soil conservation, leading to greater yields and faster growth, while cutting down on wasteful surface evaporation and poisonous pesticides. 

The company’s Do It Yourself (DIY) greywater irrigation equipment for residential and commercial use is marketed under the brand name Grey4Green, which is owned by Drought Diet Products. Recently, the group has expanded its focus to the commercial property market, offering devices that collect condensed water from air conditioners and bathroom sinks and reuse it for landscape irrigation.

The startup has also developed a method called ‘Net Zero Water Farming’, which refers to practices for improving agriculture water utilization through transpiration only and providing a path for groundwater balancing. A byproduct of this new irrigation system is the way energy is consumed. The system enables users to adopt an energy consumption profile based on a “flexible on-demand load” instead of large multi-day chunks of power, thereby optimizing energy usage based on the actual requirement at a given time. 

Drought Diet Products is also working on enhancing corporate supply chain sustainability by moving from traditional conservation to long-term resiliency to mitigate resource crunch resulting from ongoing climate crises. Its renewable energy curtailment prevention services aim to enhance corporate power purchasing agreements (PPAs) by limiting the curtailment period and low pricing production.

Origin and Founding Team

Joseph Gallegos, CEO of Drought Diet Products, has spent the last 4+ years working towards creating cutting-edge products and services based on a new category of irrigation – the virtual water table management.

He initially built the Aquifer Pipe as a way to keep his home landscape green and fruit trees alive, and soon realized the product’s potential for commercial use among farmers and food-growers.

He has been actively working with industry and a distinguished science team to improve agriculture water utilization through the ‘Net Zero Water Farming’ method.

The post Drought Diet Products – Smart irrigation products for water conservation appeared first on Techweek.

Name: Rain Systems

Legal Name: Rain Systems, Inc

Location: Los Angeles, California

Founded: 2016

Founder(s): Elaine Sibert, Jim Sibert 

Website: https://rainsystems.com/

Social Media Following: 63 Likes on Facebook, 27 Followers on LinkedIn 

INDUSTRY – Smart Agriculture Technology 

Size: $4.50 billion in 2015 (Source: Analysis of the Smart Agriculture Technology Market)

Projections: $9.00 billion by 2020 (CAGR of 14.8%) (Source: Analysis of the Smart Agriculture Technology Market)

Introduction

Rain Systems is an agriculture technology company that creates devices to reduce water consumption while maintaining green spaces in a sustainable manner. 

The Product 

Rain Systems’ patented proprietary technology, the Precision Injection Machine (PIM), uses a computerized water injection system to implant hydrogel into existing green turf or agricultural land. The hydrogel increases the soil’s capacity to retain water and absorbs the water, thereby reducing its wastage due to evaporation or drainage. The hydrogel stores the water and releases it gradually into the ground whenever needed to make sure the turf remains hydrated and is not over-irrigated. 

The hydrogel used by Rain Systems in its PIM has been tested and approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the company’s website, this hydrogel is 100% biodegradable, non-toxic, and effective for up to 3 years. 

Origin and Founding Team 

Rain Systems was founded in 2016 by Elaine Sibert, who currently serves as the company’s CEO, and Jim Sibert, who is the CTO. 

Elaine holds a BBA in Finance from the University of Texas Arlington. She founded her first production company – Three (One) O, in 1994 at the age of 26 without any external investment, and grew it into a multi-million dollar company with revenues of more than $150M. As the CEO and Executive Producer at the company, Elaine oversaw operations as well as produced projects both in the US and internationally for clients such as HBO, Showtime, ABC, Fox Broadcasting, Sears, Walmart, 7-Eleven, McDonald’s, Gatorade, and many others. 

Jim refers to himself as an ‘entrepreneur throughout his life’ and has invested in developing real estate, including prominent bars and restaurants, in Dallas. In 2009, he found out about hydrogel soil conditioners and identified a potentially significant need and a market for such solutions. He found that no machine or technique existed at the time that was capable of installing hydrogels into the ground without tilling it and disturbing the green cover. Over the next few years, Jim worked on developing and patenting a water conservation system that could distribute hydrogel into the ground with enough precision that it does not impact the turf or the soil’s potency for agricultural production. 

Performance and Trends

In April 2016, Rain Systems was chosen by Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator for its accelerator program. Following this, the company has executed pilot projects with CalState University Northridge, City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, Los Angeles Unified School District, and Soule Park Golf Course. 

The company also received the Innovative Conservation Program Grant for its “Precision Injection Machine Water Conservation Pilot” from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, in June 2018. The company also received $150K seed funding from Quake Capital in the same month.

The post Rain Systems – sustainable agritech at scale appeared first on Techweek.

Growing Population and Unsustainability of Traditional Farming

The United Nations estimates that earth will be home to over 9.8 billion people by 2050. The path to ensuring food security for such a large population is rife with challenges as one-fifth of the earth’s vegetated land surface shows a persistent declining trend in productivity, half the global population lives in potentially water scarce areas, and climate change is leading to dramatic weather swings. Agricultural practices have also been feeding into land deterioration and water scarcity pressures. On the one hand, agriculture uses 70% of the freshwater withdrawals while on the other it is a major contributor to water pollution and contamination with chemical runoffs.

Consumer expectations and business practices also contribute to the problem. As consumers ‘buy with their eyes’ and look for that perfect looking produce, supermarkets discard fruits and vegetables worth $15 B every year. The discarded ‘subpar’ produce is often rejected for not matching cosmetic expectations.

At a time when the sustainability of traditional agriculture is being questioned and consumers are demanding more taste in their fruits and vegetables, urban farming has emerged as a possible solution.

Inside 80 Acres Farms (PC: 80 Acres Farms)

How 80 Acres Farms Does It

80 Acres Farms grows microgreens, leafy greens, culinary herbs, vine crops and fruits indoors. With a team of scientists, engineers and farmers supported by state of the art technology to monitor and regulate the environment, 80 Acres Farms is able to provide plants with essentials like water, nutrients, CO2 and energy indoors.

While growing crops indoors, managing and maintaining the required delicate balance in the environment is critical to ensure success. The indoor facilities are divided into various ‘grow zones’, each specifically designed and modulated for a particular crop type. Plant seeds are germinated and then transported to their respective ‘grow zones’. The air and water are filtered every 82 seconds to ensure that the atmosphere is clean. Computer-assisted systems monitor the areas closely.

By farming hydroponically, 80 Acres Farms exposes the plant’s roots to a mineral nutrient solution that contains all of the essential nutrients instead of using soil. As plants grow, they require different nutrients at different stages of their growth. Special nutrition recipes are provided at each stage. By monitoring what is fed into and released by the plants, the technicians monitoring the plants know what is consumed and replenish what the plants need.

While outdoor farms rely on sunlight as the major source of energy, indoor farms use LED lights instead. Back in the early 1940s, scientists had figured out that among the broad spectrum of light, plants need red and blue bands in the photosynthesis process. Advances in LED technology allow producers to manipulate red, far red and blue bands. These manipulations in different mixes combined with other factors such as light duration and intensity give out different ‘light recipes’. 80 Acres Farms uses different light recipes to influence outcomes such as taste, nutrition value, and growth. An example of this is the sweet version and another piquant version of basil that 80 Acres Farms grows from the same plant by simply manipulating the light recipe.

Urban farming removes the logistical hassles of transporting produce from farms to the market, giving 80 Acres Farms the freedom to focus on getting seed varieties with the highest nutritional profile and richest flavor. 80 Acres Farms also has the luxury of letting the fruits and vegetables ripen on a vine and harvesting them only after they have attained full maturity. This ensures that the harvest has the full flavor potential and nutritional value.

80 Acres Farms Products (PC: 80 Acres Farms)

80 Acres Farms’ Advantages

80 Acres Farms’ indoor vertical farming model has many advantages over traditional farms as well as greenhouses such as Gotham Greens. While Gotham Greens claims to use 90% less water than traditional agriculture methods, 80 Acres Farms is slightly ahead, consuming 97% less water. While Gotham Greens has yields 30 times higher than that of traditional farms, 80 Acres Farms has an edge claiming yields of over 100 times. 80 Acres Farms can also grow crops faster than traditional farms and greenhouses. For example, it can grow spinach in a quarter of the time it takes in a field and half the time it takes in a greenhouse.

Gotham Greens and 80 Acres Farms have many similarities as well. As plants are grown without pesticides, there is no risk of chemical runoff. The advantage of growing locally is the elimination of thousands of food miles and a decrease in food waste. The 100% use of renewables as a source of energy adds to the sustainability proposition of 80 Acres Farms and Gotham Greens when compared to traditional farms. The crops grown are also GMO-free. As plants can be grown 365 days a year, barriers placed by seasonality no longer constrain what can or cannot be grown. Fresh produce is available all year long. As plants are grown in a controlled and secure environment, risks from pests and diseases are minimized.

Origin Story

With a desire to make a difference in the food industry, Mike Zelkind (CEO) and Tisha Livingston (President) co-founded 80 Acres Farms in 2015. In an interview with Greenhouse Management, Mike said “I felt like there was a real need. The food that we eat is not the same quality as what we ate 20 or 30 years ago.”

While the two co-founders were food industry veterans having worked at companies such as Sager Creek Vegetable Company (a division of Del Monte Foods) and Conagra Foods in various roles, they had no experience in horticulture and growing produce. The duo traveled the world to understand different technologies and growing methods.

The duo acquired an abandoned warehouse in Cincinnati and started their indoor farm by placing two shipping containers fit with state of the art technology to monitor and regulate the environment. Their name ‘80 Acres Farms’ comes from their ability to grow nearly 200,000 pounds of produce annually in their 12,000 square feet facility that would otherwise require 80 acres.

80 Acres Farms at various retail outlets (PC: 80 Acres Farms)

Taking Urban Farming To The Next Level

80 Acres Farms has been selling commercially since the beginning of 2017. Their customers include retail stores such as Whole Foods, US Foods, Dorothy Lane Markets, Clifton Market, Jungle Jim’s Market as well as restaurants. The feedback from clients has been extremely positive. In a PBS segment on 80 Acres Farms, Dennis Chrisman, Vice President, Dorothy Lane Markets while describing the startup said “their dedication to quality and getting the product to us very quickly makes us a better company”.

Apart from the facility in Cincinnati, 80 Acres Farms has facilities in Daphne, Alabama, Springdale, Arkansas, and Granite Falls, North Carolina. 80 Acres Farms is also building a 150,000 square feet fully automated indoor farm in Hamilton, Ohio. Once completed, the Hamilton facility will be the first fully automated indoor farm in North America. Activities from seeding to growing and harvesting will be fully automated, supported by robots, AI and around-the-clock monitoring sensors and control systems. “It will serve as a prototype for our ambitious plans to co-locate similar facilities with commercial customers in other parts of the country.” Mike Zelkind said in a press release last year announcing the facility.

Earlier this month, 80 Acres Farms received ‘significant investment’ from the Virgo Investment Group. AgFunderNews estimates that the deal was worth more than $40M. This investment will help 80 Acres Farms complete the Hamilton, Ohio facility.

While the economics of the nascent industry are yet to be fully revealed and known, investors have been pouring millions into urban farming startups. In the past two years, several startups have raised millions in funding – Plenty ($200M, 2017) AeroFarms ($40M, 2017) and Bowery ($90M, 2018). Apart from indoor vertical farming companies, greenhouse facilities are also competing in the urban farming landscape. Techweek covered Gotham Greens’ $29M funding round in August last year.

The post 80 Acres Farms – Bringing Taste and Nutrition Back Into Produce appeared first on Techweek.