The title of the newsletter is "why vertical farming failed" but the article made me way more optimistic than I expected, actually. The numbers seem to work for herbs and strawberries in particular locations. It sounds possible that vertical farms will be used in lots of places to produce fresh strawberries locally during the winter, for instance.
I don't think it ought to be surprising that they can't produce grains or staple crops, but I think vertical farming still counts as a success if some companies survive to produce niche vegetables, herbs and fruit. I was also a bit surprised (though maybe I shouldn't have been) that fluctuations in energy prices killed companies in 2022-2023, these businesses will have to figure out how to be resilient to energy price changes
Yes, the niche for these farms has to be hand-harvested crops that are difficult or impossible to ship ripe. These rely on cheap labor that may disappear as immigration becomes more challenging and have limited availability or poor quality off-season. It's never going to be a significant percentage of agricultural output, but the right crops in the right places could be viable.
Interesting thoughts on vertical farming. In a recent Munro video on Redwood Materials, they talked about sharing their campus with a data center that was completely off grid. Massive solar with battery storage back up. I wonder if this is the way for vertical farming, spend some of their up front Capex on clean energy infrastructure to save on OpEx margins in the future?
On vertical farms, consider me not surprised - the surprise to me is that anyone thought it would work. And that's on what I think are fairly obvious vibes rather than a consideration of energy costs. Sceptical of lab grown meat for similar reasons.
The title of the newsletter is "why vertical farming failed" but the article made me way more optimistic than I expected, actually. The numbers seem to work for herbs and strawberries in particular locations. It sounds possible that vertical farms will be used in lots of places to produce fresh strawberries locally during the winter, for instance.
I don't think it ought to be surprising that they can't produce grains or staple crops, but I think vertical farming still counts as a success if some companies survive to produce niche vegetables, herbs and fruit. I was also a bit surprised (though maybe I shouldn't have been) that fluctuations in energy prices killed companies in 2022-2023, these businesses will have to figure out how to be resilient to energy price changes
Yes, the niche for these farms has to be hand-harvested crops that are difficult or impossible to ship ripe. These rely on cheap labor that may disappear as immigration becomes more challenging and have limited availability or poor quality off-season. It's never going to be a significant percentage of agricultural output, but the right crops in the right places could be viable.
Interesting thoughts on vertical farming. In a recent Munro video on Redwood Materials, they talked about sharing their campus with a data center that was completely off grid. Massive solar with battery storage back up. I wonder if this is the way for vertical farming, spend some of their up front Capex on clean energy infrastructure to save on OpEx margins in the future?
On vertical farms, consider me not surprised - the surprise to me is that anyone thought it would work. And that's on what I think are fairly obvious vibes rather than a consideration of energy costs. Sceptical of lab grown meat for similar reasons.