After living in Venezuela for 20 years, Laurens Trebes and his son Johannes, of the Netherlands, were inspired to create a company that could mimic the mist of the rainforest canopy. Urban Ponics is a semi-controlled aeroponic environment, it sources minerals from places like Great Salt Lake and removes the sodium chloride to create a nutrient-dense mist throughout the environment for the crops to blossom.
Right now the company is working with about 20 farmers who work in overly arid and humid environments like in deserts and tropical areas. The technology they have created collects data from inside the ecosystem to better understand how to control the mist. It's a way to bring farming into urban areas as well as tough environments.
Rowain has created what it calls an "Intellifarm," which uses AI to grow food from seed to consumption in just 30 days. Using hydroponics in a vertical farming system, the AI is capable of uploading two tons of lettuce into the shelves and control the amount of nutrients they receive. A fan on each floor controls the air flow while tubes of CO2 flow through each level.
Founder and CEO Lee Kyeongha has a PhD in Robotics. Part of why he created Rowain is because fewer young people are getting into agriculture, but with Rowain they wouldn't need to live in rural areas and they don't need all of the generational knowledge because of the AI assistance. The AI system also reduces the risk of human contamination and creates less food waste that results from recalls. The company is growing this year, especially as it gets ready to introduce an AI-generated video surveillance system inside of the ecosystem.
Source: forbes.com