In Berlin, Germany, you might bump into a small, indoor vertical farm as you wheel your cart down the produce aisle of Metro, a wholesale supermarket.
According to Quartz, the farm — or Kräutergarten, meaning ‘herb garden’ — is the project of Infarm, a startup dedicated to its mission of helping cities have self-sufficient food production. Plant growth is observed by Infarm app monitors. Twice weekly, Greek bonsai basil and Thai basil are harvested from the farm and sold in the supermarket.
The indoor farm launched in 2015, and since then, more than 400 packages of the farm’s herbs have been sold at the Berlin store each month.
Read more: Quartz > A startup that wants to end world hunger is starting with a tiny indoor vertical farm
Hi Katie, there are some amazing things happening in this realm here in the U.S. as well! There’s a movement called the “Upstart Farmers” who are using soil-less growing techniques to grow food closer to market with fewer resources and doing it in a transparent way to serve their customers. Here’s a great example: https://brightagrotech.com/zipfarm/triple-threat-urban-farm/
Thanks for sharing that link, Chris!