Reflections after a decade in vertical farming

Rodrigo Pereyra, the VP of AgScience at Bowery, discusses the direction vertical farming has taken since its inflection point and highlights some innovations that could benefit the whole CEA sector.

Photo right: Rodrigo Pereyra

Over the past decade, vertical farming has significantly advanced technology adoption in CEA. Until recently, Bowery had been a driver of this change, with Rodrigo Pereyra leading its research and development efforts.

Now, Rodrigo reflects on his experiences at Bowery and what CEA growers can learn for the future.

"There probably is a limit to the size of the system that is manageable to give you practical output and consistent crop production.

"My thoughts now turn to how you make an operation more resilient, so you aren't absorbing so much risk by having really big systems that are practical when everything is working well. However, when you have a problem, they are difficult to manage," explains Rodrigo.

He believes growing media will be incredibly important in the future. Peat restrictions are coming, and at the same time, its current use potentially introduces a host of plant pathogens into systems.

"So, how do you manage your inputs to reduce future risk and improve consistency? We want to know that every crop is consistent regardless of the seed lot or variations the growing media has introduced if you use organic-based material."

Testing new technology
Part of Rodrigo's role at Bowery was to examine innovative technologies that have the potential to improve their production system.

"Coming into Bowery, I had the notion of tech being an enabler for vertical farming and that there was a lot of power in technology to grow crops. If anything, my perspective shifted during my time there.

"Ultimately, what you are solving is an agricultural problem; tech can complement that. It can give you visibility, automation, and efficiencies that you might not get otherwise, but, fundamentally, what you need to give plants is water, nutrients, air, and light."

There is a danger of overemphasizing non-agricultural tech to solve agricultural problems. However, Rodrigo believes there is a balance to strike, and the latest technology offers considerable advances in growing.

"This is where technology like Zayndu's is exciting because it addresses an agricultural input issue," he says.

Rodrigo's team began testing this 'ActivatedAir' cold-plasma seed treatment technology developed by Zayndu in 2023. Bowery's initial focus for ActivatedAir was investigating its ability to remove pathogens from spinach seeds.

"When we first started speaking with Zayndu, what stuck with me was the level of engagement of the team. They made a point of continually communicating with us to find a solution and move things forward."

They expanded the scope of their work with ActivatedAir to include different crop types, conducting a full screen across most of Bowery's important crops. "One of the things that came out of this that was interesting as we were looking at seed cleaning
was the impact on yield," adds Rodrigo.

When Bowery first examined ActivatedAir's pathogen removal capabilities, they discovered that the treatment enhanced overall crop performance.

"On one main variety, we saw a 15% increase in germination, which led to a significant impact on yield," explains Rodrigo.

They encountered an issue with inconsistent seed germination that led to inefficiencies. Some seed batches germinated well, whereas others could have been better.

"With many growing costs fixed, reduced yields from inconsistent seed germination impact profitability," says Rodrigo. However, if every batch performs similarly, growers can achieve consistent outcomes.

From a grower's perspective, Rodrigo sees an opportunity for ActivatedAir to help solve this problem and deliver value for the grower
Zayndu's Ollie Green says this benefit of ActivatedAir is something they have been focussing on with other users.

"Germination consistency is at the forefront of every conversation they have with growers using ActivatedAir," states Ollie.

"We've done much more work on this after the result Bowery found, and we are finding that ActivatedAir enhances seed germination consistency. We are developing treatment protocols to focus on this"

Despite the apparent commercial challenges in the vertical farming sector, it is evident that it still has much to offer CEA. Evaluating and adopting new technologies, along with expertise in these areas, is crucial for sustained profitability.

At the time of the interview, Rodrigo Pereyra was exploring new opportunities in his field of expertise. Please connect with him on LinkedIn if you'd like to reach out.