Fast Company has a fascinating piece about a company called Area 2 Farms, which is looking to build indoor farms in unusual spaces – especially office buildings that have been been sitting vacant since the pandemic offered many people the opportunity to work remotely.
According to the story, the three-year-old company opened its first indoor farm, in Arlington, Virginia, where it “grows dozens of varieties of crops in a low-slung brick building tucked between a dog day care and a car repair shop. With a new infusion of venture capital, the company is planning to expand, and it’s looking to empty office buildings as potential future farms … Backed by $9 million in new funding from Seven Seven Six, Slow Ventures, 468 Capital, and Animo, Area 2 Farms is planning to build 10 new farms across the U.S. in 2026.”
The goal, Fast Company writes, is to “build indoor farms within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population.”
The story says that “the company’s pilot farm in Arlington produced its first crop in fall 2022. The company estimates it has produced more than 20,000 harvests since then, using a modular rack-based system that automatically moves crops through a cycle of mimicked daylight and darkness.
“Planted in box containers filled with soil, the farm is able to grow kitchen staples like lettuce, spinach, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and mushrooms, as well as more niche items like amaranth microgreens and purple shamrock. Rising 18 feet tall, the racks cram 200 acres-worth of annual crop growing into 3,000 square feet of real estate.”
You can read the entire piece here.
KC’s View:
Indoor farming isn’t new – there are a lot of examples of companies that thought they’d cracked the code on how to make the business viable and profitable.
And, to be honest, I have no idea how the current political situation – farmers who have lost global markets because of tariffs and now may be getting a significant bailout from the government, all of which is raising questions about the business of farming and the efficacy of agricultural policy – plays out for companies like these, which could benefit from responsible public support.
But I am intrigued by what Area 2 Farms is trying to achieve, especially because of how it is trying to repurpose existing and underutilized real estate and essentially grow food in communities where they can be close to their customers. It is a little audacious, and I wish them luck.
The post Building A New Farming Infrastructure appeared first on MNB.
View Original Article
