Instead of going to the field to pick your vegetables, herbs or spices, what about the grocery store? Cathy Isom tells us about the company that wants to put a farm in every grocery store. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Picking Your Produce in a Grocery Store Farm
The way we eat food, how we eat it, and also how we buy it, is constantly changing. Especially when it comes to fresh, local produce. It’s becoming more common to purchase our fresh produce from farmers markets or roadside stands or just grow our own.
But, imagine one day walking into your favorite grocery store and actually finding fresh food being grown right there in front of you! It’s a concept a company in Berlin Germany, called Infarm, launched last year when it put vertical farming in one of Europe’s largest wholesalers. It was apparently a hit, and they are hoping it catches on. The Infarm’s indoor vertical farming system is capable of growing anything from herbs, lettuce, and other vegetables. And even fruit.
The plants are monitored by multiple sensors and fed by an internet-controlled irrigation and nutrition system. The system is chemical and pesticide-free and can prioritize food grown for taste, color, and nutritional value. Rather than shelf life or its ability to sustain mass production.
Infarm’s co-founder Osnat Michaeli says each farming unit is its own individual ecosystem. Creating the exact environment plants need to flourish. Because the company’s concept of vertical farming is on a small but infinitely expandable scale, we could potentially see this idea pop up in customer-facing city locations, such as grocery stores, restaurants, shopping malls, and schools. Enabling the end-customer to actually pick the produce themselves.
No word yet, if the company plans to test this out in any stores in the United States.
I’m Cathy Isom…
Video:
****The First InStore Farm in Europe****
The first of its kind farm in the METRO Supermarket in Berlin.
Delicious greens grow 365 days a year InStore
In full transparency and by demand.
Video created by INFARM
Music by kling klang klong http://www.klingklangklong.com/
cinematographer: Colin Elves http://colinelves.com/