indoor Agriculture

        Ever since the first farmer planted seeds and endured the weather dependent waiting period before harvest, there have been dreams of better ways of farming.  Indoor agriculture with its promise of foolproof weather control and an ability to eliminate all but a benign input from Mother nature has been the holy grail of farmers for thousands of years.

      It was with some trepidation that I read a story in Louisville Public Media via the blog Lawyers, Guns and Money.  The article traced the hype, boom and bust of Appharvest a startup greenhouse which promised well paying jobs to people displaced by the demise of the coal industry.   The company raised over $700 million from investors who should have questioned the bona fides of the 32 year old CEO with no agricultural experience.

    I know a little about greenhouse growing and its challenges.  The most successful operations in the world are located in the Netherlands and Canada.  Both are located hundreds of miles north of Kentucky, where summertime temperatures routinely climb into the mid 90s.  This makes ventilation to lower temperatures a nightmare if you are using technology developed in Northern Europe where summertime temperatures are much lower.   I am fairly certain this maladaptation of ventilation and growing methods doomed the venture from the start.  

    Labor was also an issue.   The LPM article treats the worker complaints regarding working conditions sympathetically.   The bottom line in Kentucky and most other areas of the US is native labor is unlikely to thrive under the conditions and culture which most ag businesses employ.   The ignorance of management regarding working conditions in the greenhouses and its gross violations of pledges it made to workers eventually led the company to use hundreds of hispanic workers in an effort to boost productivity.

     The entire operation was sold to new owners who supposedly know something about greenhouse production.  Whether they can correct the technology is, I think, an open question.   Until climate change wreaks havoc on outdoor agriculture, companies like Appharvest will remain niche operations which will be hard pressed to compete with outdoor production of fruits and vegetables.