On the QT | The Official Newsletter of GWA November-December 2017 | Page 14

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
DENCY KANE
Hi-Tech Farms of the Future?
The World Bank estimates that exploding population growth
will require us to produce 50 percent more food—using fewer
resources—by 2050
Freight Farms container at Stony Brook University, Long Island, New York.
Former U.S. Vice
President Al Gore likes
to refer to one of
economist Rudi Dorn-
busch’s favorite sayings:
“In economics, things
take longer to happen
than you think they will,
and then they happen
faster than you thought
they would.”
This quote resonated with me after meeting
Tommy Romano of Infinite Harvest the night
before attending Al Gore’s Climate Reality
Project’s three-day training in Denver, Colorado,
earlier this year. A local resident had invited 15
of us to meet Romano for dinner to learn about
his vertically stacked hydroponic farm in a
Lakewood warehouse, three miles from
downtown Denver.
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VERTICAL FARMS: HOW THEY WORK
In 2009, Romano, who has a background
in aerospace engineering, saw that LED and
renewable-energy technologies had advanced
sufficiently to make vertical farms viable, and
he put together a business plan. He spent two
years researching, building his own systems and
testing them in an off-grid, self-contained verti-
cal farm. The proof of concept worked. In 2014,
he outfitted a 5,400-square-foot warehouse with
a closed-loop vertical farm system.
“The space that we have here is producing
about 26 acres equivalent of farmland annually,”
said Romano. His growing towers are on aver-
age 10 tiers high and up to 18 feet tall. He grows
densely packed leafy greens, micro greens and
herbs using city water that is pushed through
reverse osmosis and UV filtration.
A mix of nutrients is added to the water that
flows toward the plant roots. The water is recy-
cled and used again. This recirculating system
supports water conservation because water is
added only to replenish what has evaporated.
According to the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment, Infinite Harvest
uses over 90 percent less water than conven-
tional farming. Online, the department also
states that Infinite Harvest’s “proprietary LED
lighting systems reduce energy consumption
more than 50 percent, compared to indus-
try-standard, hydroponic lighting.”
There is an air-monitoring system that checks
humidity, airflow and temperature. The plant
seeds are organic and pesticides are never used.
Entrance to the warehouse is through a double
set of doors in order to protect plants from
pests. Tommy Romano’s produce is delivered
within a 50-mile radius the same day it’s
harvested , reducing transportation-related
carbon pollution.