Five Acre Solar Panel Array, Water Conservation Help Hydroponic Tomato Operation Generate Sustainable Return

February 24, 2012 | Jessica Vernabe

The owner of Houweling’s Tomatoes has more than plump, red, juicy fruit on its mind—the hydroponics greenhouse tomato grower is also thinking about the planet.

Casey Houweling is the owner of the Delta, British Columbia-based company, which derives from a business his father started in 1956. While the company is headquartered in Canada, much of the sustainable magic happens at its Camarillo, Calif., year-round greenhouse growing facility, where renewable energy is produced, heat is generated and water is conserved.

At the glass greenhouse facility—which covers 125 acres of land—five acres of photovoltaic solar panels provide one megawatt of electricity, which is equivalent to removing 300 cars from the road, according to the company. Electricity is used on-site and also sold to the grid. Read More

In Partnership with NYC High School, Cornell U. Builds and Enhances Sustainable Agriculture Technology

February 8, 2012 | Jessica Vernabe

Students at culinary arts-focused Food and Finance High School in New York City learn more than just how to cook up a good fish fillet—they also learn how to grow the fish along with other foods using real-time, applied science and Cornell University technologies.

The high school is home to the Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CUCE), New York City Hydroponics, Aquaculture, Aquaponics Learning Labs, where students learn how to grow their own tilapia and other fish species, more than 10 different types of lettuce, Chinese cabbages and herbs. The food is used in the campus cafeteria, in the school’s culinary classes and in its student catering program, said Philson A. A. Warner, founding director of the CUCE learning labs. Warner is also CUCE New York City’s coordinator of science, technology and sustainable agriculture. Read More

Wyoming Hydroponic Tower Co. Seeks to Facilitate Sustainable Food Production and Make Farming Less Expensive

February 6, 2012 | Matt Wilhalme

Nate Storey and business partner Paul Bennick want to make farming more efficient, sustainable and affordable for the private and commercial greenhouse grower. To do so, the partners founded Bright AgroTech, LLC, a mission driven company that develops modular hydroponic production towers to not only increase production in hydroponic and aquaponic systems, but also facilitate sustainable food production.

“We got into it to make farming less expensive,” Storey says.

The product that Storey, a PhD candidate in agronomy at the University of Wyoming, along with Bennick, a Wyoming Army National Guardsmen who served two tours in Iraq and grew up on a ranch, developed to reduce costs is called the ZipGrow Tower™. Read More

Re-Imagining Agriculture Event in Los Angeles to Focus on Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurship

February 3, 2012 | Robert Puro

(Los Angeles, CA, February 2, 2012) – A growing crop of agricultural entrepreneurs is beginning to sprout in Southern California. Compelled by a desire to meet the food and energy demands of a world population forecast to peak at 9 billion by 2050, these entrepreneurs are endeavoring to re-imagine a more sustainable, healthy and profitable future for agriculture – from the development of high tech farms that utilize the latest hydroponic and aquaponic technology to grow food cleanly, efficiently and without chemicals to urban farming models that seek to bring scalable food production back to cities.

To explore this flight to innovation in agriculture, please join Seedstock, a sustainable agriculture media company, in association with the Entrepreneur Association and the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies on March 7, from 6pm – 9pm at the UCLA Anderson School of Management for the event, Re-Imagining Agriculture: Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurship in Southern California.  Read More

Atlanta’s Bioponica Seeks to Close Loop on Hydroponic and Aquaponic Farming

February 2, 2012 | Noelle Swan

The term sustainable farming has been creeping steadily into the vernacular, popping up in business plans, on food blogs, and at local farmers’ markets around the country. David Epstein, D.O. and Kenneth Lovell, P.E. of Bioponica™ hope to usher new farmers into the world of sustainable agriculture through their unique design and method of soilless, closed-loop, farming.  Read More