The Toulouse, France-based AgTech startup was founded in 2011 by two robotics engineers, Gaëtan Séverac and Aymeric Barthes. The company has developed three different types of autonomous weeding robots: Oz, designed for market gardens and small farms; Dino, for large-scale vegetable crops; and Ted, for vineyards.

“Our weeding robots respect both the environment and man,” Anouck Lefebvre, a Naio Technologies spokesperson, says. “They provide a solution to tackle farmworker shortages, reduce the strenuous physical workload of hand weeding, and limit the use of chemical weed killers.”

The company currently has about 150 robots in use in Europe, Canada, and Japan. Last year, Naio Technologies began testing its autonomous weeding robots in the US, at 15 different commercial farms mainly in Salinas, Santa Maria, and Davis, California. Dino has been used on a variety of crops—including lettuce, tomatoes, garlic, cabbage, pepper, and celery—and in various soil conditions, according to Simon Belin, an experimental engineer at Naio Technologies, who has been testing the robots in the US.

The company recently received an influx of $15.5 million in funding to continue its investment in research and development and to push into the US market, according to Lefebvre. Naio Technologies plans to open a center in California later this year to “store and maintain our robots” and “market the robots to new customers,” she tells Modern Farmer.

There are some other ag robots on the market focused on weed control, such as Ecorobotix AVO,  Franklin Robotics’ Tertill, and FarmWise Labs’ version. Naio Technologies’ robots don’t use chemicals, are large enough for commercial use, and aren’t powered by diesel, Lefebvre says.

Here’s how they work according to Belin: The farmer creates a map of each bed the robot needs to weed using its GPS system, uploads it into Dino through a USB key, puts the robot in front of the first bed and Dino does the rest.

The Dino can go for between six and eight hours, depending on soil conditions and how many of the machine’s tools are in use at one time. The batteries require about eight hours to recharge, but Naio’s engineers are working on speeding up the recharging time.

According to Belin, the growers and farm managers he’s worked with in the US on research and development have been “happy to help us” and are “pretty impressed by the autonomous part of the machine.”

“You just let the machine go, and it cultivates the field,” Dylan Bognuda, a production engineer for Betteravia Farms, which grows vegetables on 9,000 acres in Santa Maria, California, and in Yuma, Arizona, told the website The Counter. Bognuda was surprised by how smoothly Dino ran, unlike some other robots he’d tried.

The Dino costs about $220,000, but the company prefers to rent out its robots, working hand-in-hand with farmers to address their specific needs, and it can also advise farmers on financing options, according to the company. Naio Technologies expects the Dino will be available for purchase in the US later this year.

Beyond weeding, the company has developed its navigation system to be standardized for any off-road robot, so it could be used for a variety of crop types and jobs, according to Lefebvre. “This makes our robots a solid base for precision farming,” she says.

One question that always looms when discussing robots involves the loss of jobs. Lefebvre’s response is that there’s a farmworker shortage in both Europe and the US, so it’s a bit of a moot point.

“It’s really complicated today to find farm labor in Europe and in the US,” she says. “Naïo Technologies has been created to answer this problem and to allow farmers to reduce their physical workload to free up time for other tasks.”

Lefebvre believes that, within ten years,  there will be robots in every agricultural field in Europe and North America. “We recognize that the challenge is very ambitious, but we are convinced that we can meet it alongside our partners and stakeholders,” she says. “Our goal is to ensure the ecological and social transition to sustainable agriculture.”

The post Futuristic Farming Has Arrived with Weeding Robots appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“Almost all agricultural funding is driven by government policies—either direct government loans or banks through government programs—so if you’re not growing the top commodities at a large scale and aren’t part of the system, it’s really hard to access capital,” says Dan Miller, the founder and CEO of Steward. “Steward was created to be a kind of a flexible form of funding able to adapt to the needs of the farm.”

For East Fork Cultivars, besides being small, there was an additional hurdle. While hemp is federally legal, it’s a crop that many financial institutions still shy away from, according to Mason Walker, the CEO of East Fork Cultivars. Even though the farm, founded by brothers Nathan and Aaron Howard, was creditworthy, they still didn’t have access to conventional financing. “Financial institutions are still being very conservative about lending to what they feel is a volatile agricultural market,” Walker says.

Steward provided the farm with a private mortgage of $640,000 so East Fork Cultivars could purchase 24 acres its neighbor was selling, which allowed it to expand hemp production and helped fund the infrastructure development needed to make it operational. “They’ve just been really strong partners with us as we’ve grown,” Walker says.

So far, Steward has invested more than $2.6 million in 16 different farms, including a livestock farm in Louisiana, two urban vegetable farms in Detroit, and a vineyard in Switzerland. Steward has provided various-sized loans to buy land, improve infrastructure, and purchase needed farm equipment. More than 1,200 farmers have applied so far, according to Miller.

Before launching Steward, Miller co-founded Fundrise, the largest US real estate crowdfunding platform. In September, after a two-year proof-of-concept phase, Steward opened up investment opportunities to any US resident (except those in Florida and Nebraska due to state regulations) who could invest as little as $100 in a fund that supports a variety of sustainable farm projects. (If you live outside the US, it’s a bit more complicated since you have to be an accredited investor with a minimum investment of $1,000.)

There are plans in the works to allow for small international investors for their own domestic markets, Miller says.

Here’s how Steward works on the investment end: In a few steps, all done online, you can invest in the Steward Farm Trust, which earns on loans made to all the farmers on the platform (a projected 6-percent annual dividend paid monthly beginning this year). Steward’s newest opportunity will allow people to invest in individual farms, and it is scheduled to launch at the end of January. East Fork Cultivars is its first project. Loans vary depending on the collateral provided, the farmer’s experience, and the farm’s revenue and cash flow. “Not only can people support regenerative agriculture but they can make a reasonable return in the process,” Miller says.

The main differences between Steward and other agricultural-related funding opportunities, such as Dirt Capital, FarmTogether, and Kiva, are the smaller amount you can invest, Steward’s sole focus on sustainable farms, and that its loans aren’t just for buying farmland. Miller doesn’t see these others as the competition but rather as complementary investment vehicles.

Farmers can apply for a loan on the Steward platform. The Steward team, which includes a network of experienced farmers, handles the applications, sets up “farmer-to-farmer conversations,” site visits, and ascertains the farm’s financial needs and how to best structure the funding. Steward also offers a bookkeeping program that’s $129 a month. Steward takes a one-time 2-percent loan origination fee at the closing that’s rolled into the cost of the loan. Investors don’t pay anything to make an investment but are charged a 1-percent annual service fee.

Miller, whose mother’s family farmed in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay region for generations, believes it is small, sustainable farmers who have been taking care of the land, providing fresh local food, and building community, while conventional ag has benefitted the most from government financial support. He hopes to “flip it the other way so that the ones doing the work that have positive impacts can get the funding to be successful.”

Corrections: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Washington was one of the states, where residents couldn’t invest in Stewards’ opportunities due to state regulations. That version also referred to the CEO of East Fork Cultivars as “Morgan Walker.” His name is Mason Walker. We apologize for the errors.

The post New Crowdfarming Platform Looks to Help Sustainable Farmers appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Building a Better Bird 

Officially launched in March 2019, it’s taken a decade to breed a slower-growing, hardier and healthier broiler chicken that thrives on pasture, says Blake Evans, another of the company’s founders. Cooks Venture’s birds take between 55 and 62 days to reach slaughter weight; they love to roam, roost, and jump; and they have a much higher survival rate than conventional broilers—97 percent—without being given antibiotics. “The birds are allowed to put on the bone density and develop organs before they really put on the muscle,” Evans says.

This stands in stark contrast to today’s typical broiler chickens, which are ready for slaughter in 42 days and have been bred to grow so fast and so large they can barely walk. They’re also prone to disease and heart problems, and they are live with chronic joint pain, according to John Webster, professor emeritus of animal husbandry at the University of Bristol, who spoke with the Humane Society in 2017. Commercial poultry genetics is dominated by two companies, Aviagen and Cobb-Vantress, which is owned by Tyson.

Wadiak is the co-founder of the American meal-kit company Blue Apron, which he left in 2017. He joined forces with Evans and poultry geneticist Richard Udale to create Cooks Venture. Evans’s grandfather was a giant in the poultry industry. He bred the Peterson male, the gold-standard for male-line broiler genetics for 50 years. In 2009, Evans and Udale began working on their heirloom breed that includes Naked Neck and Delaware poultry genetics.

Going Vertical 

Cooks Venture’s 800-acre farm in Decatur, Arkansas is home to its genetics program, 30 broiler houses, and enough pasture to allow the birds plenty of room to roam. The company also has a network of 30 producers with 100 retrofitted houses in Arkansas and Oklahoma. While Cooks Venture owns the birds and feed, like conventional poultry companies, it doesn’t require the growers to buy the chickens. It also doesn’t use a tournament system that pays growers based on performance like the big integrators. The company pays “more than double” the industry average on the live weight per pound, Wadiak says.

The company recently refurbished an air-chilled processing plant in Oklahoma where it can process up to 700,000 birds a week thanks in part to a $12-million round of funding backed by Amerra Capital Management LLC, a private investment firm. 

Carbon Sequestration

Cooks Venture works closely with crop farmers in the Midwest to grow their feed using regenerative growing practices such as soil building through cover cropping and crop rotation. The idea behind this is that, if one percent more carbon was sequestered into the soil on agricultural lands, it could help reverse climate change.

“We’re able to sequester greenhouse gases, put carbon back into the soil, and improve the quality of the farmer’s land so the farmer can earn a better income,” says Wadiak.

By utilizing an economy of scale, Wadiak says, the company aims to provide better-tasting chicken that’s better for both the environment and the birds at a price the average American can afford. Cooks Venture recently partnered with the online grocer FreshDirect to sell its products.

“There’s a lot of folks out there doing this small scale and we have a lot of respect for them, but nobody’s doing this in a cost-effective way at any kind of scale,” he says. “We’re the company that’s going to change the paradigm on that.”

The post Meet the Sustainable Poultry Company Taking On Big Ag appeared first on Modern Farmer.

It takes a great deal of time, effort and relationship building to make it happen, says Roy Ellamar, executive chef of Harvest, an award-winning market-inspired restaurant at the Bellagio. It helps that there are actually farms near Las Vegas (who knew?) — from small, traditional family farms to cutting-edge indoor urban growers — with even more moving to the area.

“I’m a big advocate of using local agriculture and having strong relationships with our farmers and producers,” says Ellamar. “We’re in the desert, so a lot of things are flown or trucked in and the quality of ingredients isn’t as great as it could be. It’s not what I want to work with.”

Ellamar works with a variety of farmers around Nevada, including Herbs by Diane in Boulder City, 30 miles outside of Las Vegas, where he is able to get “boutique ingredients.” Herbs by Diane, an organic farm owned and operated by Diane Greene, has been around for over a decade. She hand-harvests her produce on two acres, using homemade compost and lots of mulch to combat the sandy soil and arid desert climate, she says. Greene has been working with Ellamar since she started the farm and has a close working relationship with him. “He frequently texts me when he needs something special, and I let him know when I have something different,” she says. “He has been here several times and brought some of his family here.” Besides Harvest, Greene provides everything from microgreens to edible flowers to a dozen other Las Vegas restaurants.

Small farms can only produce so much food, and with close to 40 million visitors to Las Vegas each year, there are large-scale, cutting-edge indoor farms moving to the area to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the city. James Beard Award–winning chef Shawn McClain, the chef behind Libertine Social at Mandalay Bay and Sage and Five50 Pizza Bar at Aria, believes that Las Vegas is the perfect test market for indoor vertical farms because the city has “demanding world-class chefs” who want good produce that’s grown as locally as possible.

Last year, Oasis Biotech, one of the largest indoor hydroponic vertical-farming facilities in the United States, began operations. Among the factors that drew the Chinese-backed start-up to Las Vegas was the city’s reputation as a “food mecca and tourist destination,” says Michelle Howell, the company’s sales and marketing manager. Another factor was (strangely) the climate. “If we can make this concept work in the middle of a desert that reaches 100-plus-degree temperatures most of the year, we can make it work anywhere,” says Howell.

 The 215,000-square-foot facility can produce 1,500 pounds of pesticide- and herbicide-free microgreens and lettuce a day using 90 percent less water than a traditional farm. Its LED lighting also uses 50 percent less energy than high-pressure sodium lights. Oasis Biotech is selling its produce under the brand name Evercress, with delivery times that range from 24 to 48 hours from harvest to plate, according to the company. It’s working with Get Fresh, a Las Vegas food distribution company that services many of the local restaurants and casinos.

Las Vegas chefs are discerning and demand “as close to perfect as you can get in the produce world,” says Andy Hamilton, vice-president of sales for Get Fresh. “If the folks at Oasis Biotech can figure it out here, they should be able to apply it anywhere,” he says. “The company is starting with one of the most challenging and discerning markets, and we’re optimistic that it will be successful.”

Get Fresh is also working with another indoor vertical-farming company, Green Sense Farms, that’s breaking ground in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, and plans to be up and running by next June. The facility will be approximately 20,000 square feet, with an estimated yearly output of one million heads of lettuce and one million herb plants, says Robert Colangelo, the company’s founding farmer and CEO. The company plans to grow a variety of lettuces, herbs and baby greens, such as arugula, kale and cress.

Green Sense Farms, based in Indiana, was approached by a large casino on the strip to dedicate the entire farm production to its operations, says Colangelo. The company’s facility will also include a retail outlet and an education and outreach center where visitors can take a self-guided walking tour to learn how the company grows food, he says.

The arrival of large urban farms to Las Vegas doesn’t mean that smaller, traditional farms will necessarily lose out, says Geno Bernardo, executive chef at The Summit Club, a private luxury golf community in Las Vegas. “There’s enough room for both urban farms and beautiful, rural mom-and-pop farms,” he says.

The post How to Do Farm to Table in a Desert appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Todd

Both the farm and the film owe their existence to a dog named Todd. The Chesters rescued him from an animal hoarder and promised him that their home would be his last. But Todd was a prodigious barker when left alone, so when the inevitable notice to vacate arrived due to noise complaints, the Chesters decided to take a chance on their dream. “It changed the course of our future because we had blindly committed to an animal and weren’t willing to break that promise,” says Chester. “Our love for that dog gave us this incredibly epic and magical existence.”

“We Went Crazy”

In less than a decade, Apricot Lane Farms went from a dilapidated monocrop operation to a thriving farm with 10,000 orchard trees encompassing 75 different kinds of stone fruit, lemons, and avocados; a cornucopia of vegetables; and a boatload of animals, from pigs and sheep to horses and highland cattle. “We piled too much on from the beginning and were growing way too many things,” says Chester. “We wanted a biologically diverse ecosystem, but we went crazy.”

An Untimely Parting

The reason for such diversity rests with the agricultural ethos of Alan York, a pioneer in biodynamic growing, an integrated system that builds soil fertility through composting, animals, cover crops and crop rotation. Chester enlisted the help of York early on, and he convinced the couple to bring in an incredibly diverse mix of crops and animals to help rebuild the soil. But an untimely parting with York, just when the system he had set up needed the most attention, left the Chesters feeling angry and frustrated. In the end, it forced them to become more creative and self-reliant to overcome their challenges. “I had to respect that there was something special about this farm, and I needed to look at in a different way,” says Chester. “The problems were just things to be solved — they weren’t going to kill us or our dream.”

Working in Harmony

By year five, the system created by York had begun to show results. Nature and agriculture were working hand in hand, with a balance between predators and pests that kept both in check. Yet, even with this dynamic ecosystem chugging along, every season would see a new pest or problem crop up, says Chester. The only difference now is that the system responds faster, preventing infestations and epidemics. Beyond this, their farm remains resilient in the face of climate change, with less soil erosion, an ability to store more groundwater and higher levels of carbon in the soil than a typical farm. “I didn’t want to make a film about climate change,” says Chester. “I wanted to make a film about its consequences and living through them. It’s about the potential to unlock these ways to integrate ourselves within a system that regenerates it rather than depletes it.”

The film is released on May 10 in the United States. Here’s the trailer.

The post The Biggest Surprises from The Biggest Little Farm appeared first on Modern Farmer.

[mf_h2 align=”left” transform=”uppercase”]Best Indoor Office Plants[/mf_h2]

It’s important to set up yourself – and your office mates – for success. That means choosing a plant that will do well without a ton of natural light, isn’t incredibly water-sensitive, and that can tolerate the often-dry office air. These five fit the bill:

By Vladyslav Lehir on Shutterstock

The snake plant (Sanseveria trifasciata) is perfect for the office. It’s super-easy to care for and is great at purifying the air, according to NASA. It has stiff spear-like leaves that shoot upwards and are often streaked with yellow. It does well in indirect sunlight and only needs to be watered every two to three weeks. This is a plant you actually have to try to kill – overwatering is really its only kryptonite.

By EvgeniAli on Shutterstock

Devil’s ivy (Epipremnum aureum) is far less intimidating that it sounds. Also commonly known a pathos, this vine-y plant with heart-shaped, waxy, green leaves (sometimes with splashes of white or yellow) earned its moniker because it’s nearly impossible to kill. Perfect for an office setting! Devil’s ivy does fine in low light and doesn’t require much attention. Water when the soil is dry to the touch.

By Moolkum on Shutterstock

Another plant with a high tolerance for neglect is the spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum). This beauty has narrow leaves with white or yellow stripes, and in the spring, producers “runners” that spawn more little baby plants that sort of resemble spiders, hence the name. This is another great one for air purification. Care is simple: Water when the top inch or two of soil is dry, and allow it to dry out between waterings. Bright to medium, indirect sunlight is best, but the spider spider plant is tough and should do fine even in offices without a ton of natural light.

By cocone on Shutterstock

Parlor palms (Chamaedora elegans) require a bit more water than some of the other suggestions in this list, but they don’t require much else. These slow growing densely-leaved single trunked palms do well in lower-light situations and don’t need a ton of space. When the top of the soil is dry, give them a good soaking. In winter or low light conditions they require less watering than if they’re getting a lot of sun.

By Olga Miltsova on Shutterstock

Finally, we have the jade plant (Crassula ovata), which is a type of branched succulent shrub that originated in South Africa. Jades do well in dry, warm settings, and they prefer a bit more light. A south-facing windowsill is ideal. Water when the top of the soil is dry to the touch.

[mf_h2 align=”left” transform=”uppercase”]What to Avoid[/mf_h2]

It’s best to steer clear of blooming plants, such as tropical hibiscus and Arabian Jasmine, since they tend to require more natural light, could set your office mates’ pollen allergies into overdrive, and can be overly perfume-y for a shared workspace.

[mf_h2 align=”left” transform=”uppercase”]A Final Word of Advice[/mf_h2]

As mentioned above, every type of plant has its own needs when it comes to watering. That said, here’s a word to the wise: it’s much easier to overwater a plant that you realize. Over-watering can kill most of these plants more quickly than under-watering (over-watering causes root rot, and there’s no coming back from that). In general, if the plant is drooping, getting brown tips or dry, yellow leaves towards the bottom, you’re probably under-watering it. Water less in winter or in offices where the air conditioning is kept on high. A rigid watering schedule isn’t required for the plants we’ve suggested, but if there are multiple people caring for your greenery, or you tend to be forgetful, a watering schedule is a good idea. And lastly: always use a pot with a drainage hole.

SaveSave

SaveSave

The post The Best Indoor Office Plants”and How to Care for Them appeared first on Modern Farmer.

In theory, the lasers would be targeted at hillsides where sea eagles are known to prey on grazing sheep on Scotland’s west coast. The beams, it’s hoped, will frighten the eagles.

Vicki Mowat, a representative of SNH, tells Modern Farmer that there has been some misreporting of the plan – this is currently just an idea; no tests involving lasers have been undertaken. “We haven’t even decided if we’ll do a trial of the laser scaring yet,” she says.

According to Ross Lilley, SNH’s Sea Eagle Project Manager, the lasers are only one option being considered and that any trials that do take place will be carefully monitored “to make sure lasers are a safe and effective method before we proceed any further.” Other options are being considered, like using recorded sounds to frighten the birds.

The white-tailed sea eagle has managed to make a dramatic comeback in the UK, especially in Scotland, where the birds were hunted into extinction by 1918. Sea eagles were reintroduced to the country in the 1970s. By 2015 (the most recent data available), 106 breeding pairs called Scotland home and conservationists believe their numbers will continue to climb. But with this growth has come complaints from sheep farmers about losing livestock to these massive birds of prey, which can have a wingspan of more than eight feet.

SNH has acknowledged the problem and has been working with farmers and others on the issue, but has said in the past that studies turned up no evidence of “widespread significant predation on live lambs” by sea eagles.

In November, the agency allowed two trees that sea eagles had previously nested in near the town of Oban to be cut down in an attempt to discourage the birds from hunting in the area.

“We understand the serious concerns some farmers and crofters have about the impact of sea eagles on their livestock,” says Lilly. “Therefore, SNH, in agreement with the National Sea Eagle Stakeholder Group, has begun trialling a number of techniques to find a balance between livestock farming and wildlife, recognizing the benefits that both bring to us all.”

The post Sea Eagles Are Returning to Scotland and Preying on Sheep. Will Lasers Help? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“Many of my growers in the area have excess crops after they meet their production contracts. They do deliver a good amount to food banks already, but even then, more is left on the field because it gets to be costly to run the machines and keep labor on,” explained Krug. “This idea came from what we were hearing from food bank partners – their need for more produce – and our farmers’ willingness to donate more if it didn’t overly hurt their bottom line.”

This kind of food waste is called “walk-bys,” since the farmer walks by the field rather than harvests it. Nationally, an estimated 20.2 billion pounds of produce never reaches the supply chain for this reason, according to a 2016 report by the non-profit ReFed, which is focused on reducing food waste. Why? It’s never easy for farmers to match exactly how much they plant with a particular season’s market demand. In some cases, it may not be financially worthwhile to spend the time and money to harvest everything that was planted. There are even aesthetic reasons – perfectly edible produce that happens to be a wonky color or shape may not make the cut and gets left in the field.

Case in point: Paul Miller, a farmer from the Madison area, has been donating extra carrots to local food banks for nearly a decade. He tells the Star Tribune newspaper that it costs him “several thousand dollars” to harvest and transport the donated vegetables every year.

Krug believes his bill will make it easier and more economically viable for farmers to get some of that produce into the hands of food banks and the mouths of folks who need it most. There are more than 630,000 Wisconsinites dealing with food insecurity, about 11 percent of the population, (based on 2015 numbers), according to Feeding America, a national hunger relief organization.

The “Harvest for Hope” legislation, AKA Assembly Bill 577, would provide up to $250,000 a year to pay for the harvesting, packaging, and transportation of donated crops from farms and food processors. A statewide network of food banks would oversee the four-year pilot program.

WISCAP, an association of Wisconsin’s 16 anti-poverty community action agencies, supports the bill, saying it “just makes sense” since it would increase the amount of healthy local food for low-income families and provide payments to Wisconsin farmers and food processors for donating “quality surplus food.”

Two other Midwestern states, Minnesota and Ohio, already have similar laws on the books. In Ohio, the Agricultural Clearance Program (which began in 1999) played a part in distributing more than 52.7 million pounds of food to those in need in 2016.

Minnesota’s program, “Farm to Food Shelf,” began in 2014. The next year saw more than 6.7 million pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables pour into the state’s food banks. There were a few challenges, mostly having to do with the ability of food banks to deal with cold storage and redistribution of perishable produce, according to a 2016 Yale study on the program.

Krug’s bill has gotten through the Assembly committee and is awaiting a public hearing in the state senate sometime this month (an exact date has not yet been set). After that it would take a final floor vote in both houses and then the governor’s signature. “I do expect this bill to become law this session and am very hopeful that other states take a look at this idea as a way to lessen hunger and reduce food waste,” says Krug.

The post Wisconsin is Trying to Reduce “Walk-By” Food Waste appeared first on Modern Farmer.