Startup Profile: PodPonics Gives Rise to Sustainable Lettuce Enterprise In Used Shipping Containers

September 27, 2011 | Deanna Krinn

For Atlanta, GA-based startup, PodPonics, lettuce is everything. More than 12 chefs in the area have gone on record to say PodPonics’ greens are the best they’ve ever tasted, said Dan Backhaus, the company’s sales and marketing strategist.

“For them to get excited, you have to have pretty darn good lettuce,” he said.

PodPonics’ lettuce, by the way, is grown inside of used shipping containers that are converted into modular controlled-environment growth pods. The pods contain a proprietary growing system that combines hydroponics, advanced LED lighting, irrigation and nutrient technology with process control. Read More

Startup Profile: Urban Micro Farm Concept to Bring Fresh and Sustainable Produce to Floridians

September 19, 2011 | Deanna Krinn

The start of something great can oftentimes be the result of a series of unfortunate events.

That’s how Fort Lauderdale Vegetables LLC, a company that is focused on the development of a sustainable urban farming system that will create a network of secure healthy food sources and provide local jobs and vocational training in the sustainable agricultural industry, came into being in 2010. Read More

Startup Profile: Regional Staple Foods Enterprise Aims to Make a World of Difference

September 14, 2011 | Marie DeMange

“I’ve always been interested in making the world a better place,” remarks Michelle Ajamian, co-owner, of Shagbark Seed and Mill Co., a processing facility in Southeast Ohio that works with regional farmers to produce, process and market uncommon varieties of beans and grains from chemical free, sustainably grown crops.

For four years, fueled by a mutual passion to establish food security and nurture a healthy community economy, Ajamian and her partner Brandon Jaeger have worked hand-in-hand to create a successful model for regional staple foods production. Read More

Startup Profile: Software Brings Cost Savings into Line with Sustainable Agriculture Model

September 12, 2011 | Jon Christian

Could contemporary technology let growers enter field data on water, nutrition and pests into an algorithm – and receive predictive results more consistent and accurate than traditional record keeping? And can high tech agricultural software bring cost savings into line with the model of sustainable agriculture?

Agricultural information technology firm SureHarvest is based on the idea that they can. Founded in 1999 and based in Soquel, CA, the company aims to provide holistic management and software services to improve growers’ efficiency and impact – often in accordance with the sustainable agriculture standards established by SureHarvest president Jeff Dlott’s non-profit sustainability certification program ProtectedHarvest, a sister project which sets standards for an “eco-label” which appears on conforming products. Read More

Startup Profile: Organic and Local Food Delivery Service Born of a Passion for Sustainability

September 2, 2011 | Melinda Clark

In 2006, food and agriculture journalist Michael Pollan and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey engaged in a public correspondence about the future of small farmers in a large-scale-ag-driven world. In one of the letters, Pollan writes: “Today, I think the most important scale issue is not that ‘big is bad’ but, since big is here to stay, exactly how such entities can engage with small and local ones – indeed, I think this is one of the most momentous questions that confront us, both economically and socially.”

Greenling, the Austin, Texas-based organic and local food delivery service, is perhaps the perfect example of an answer to this question. Read More