“ I see a steady increase in urban farming,
vertical farming, and controlled
environment agriculture in the future.”
Q & A WITH AN URBAN FARMING
INDUSTRY LEADER: GLENN BEHRMAN
Maximum Yield reached out to vertical farming authority
Glenn Behrman to gain a clearer understanding of
exactly what sort of evolutions the US urban agriculture
industry is undergoing. Behrman is the founder of
GreenTech Agro LLC, a vertical farming technology
company best known for the development of the
Growtainer and the Growrack. Both progressive pieces
of equipment function as inclusive indoor gardening
structures, with the Growtainer providing a totally
comprehensive cultivation environment. Behrman is
also the founder of CEA Advisors, which is a group that
was developed as a vehicle to move CEA to the next
level. Here is what Behrman had to say:
What sort of changes have you seen happening in
the vertical farming industry in the past 10 years?
First of all, I’ve seen a growing interest in this quickly-evolving
method of production. CEA production is
not looked at in the same way as traditional agriculture
because vertical farmers have unlimited harvests and
can operate outside the constraints of weather and
seasonality. Also, modern growers don’t need to find
land when they can simply rent a warehouse in town.
Finally, farming today has become a lot less labor intensive
and a lot more scalable. Vertical farmers have a lot
more choices for their operations as well as a lot more
access to products such as crop specific fertilizer blends,
substrates, control systems, soil mixes, and wavelength-specific,
energy-efficient LED lighting. Also, they
have access to different types of production systems
such as hydroponics, aeroponics, or aquaponics.
How has an influx in investor money, as seen
with the $200 million Plenty received in summer
2017, affected the industry?
I’m not so sure it’s a good thing. First of all, funding is
not a business model. Also, these inflated amounts of
investor money might scare away the small investor
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Maximum Yield