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Bright AgroTech’s Bright Future in Vertical Farming
by Julie Buisson
As an emerging industry, vertical farming’s character is still being molded. Players in the field have big hurdles to overcome, including being able to produce at the same efficiency as conventional agriculture but without it’s destructive effects. Furthermore, they have to convince farmers to adopt completely new technology and reassure consumers who are uneasy about the idea of factory-produced greens. At this early stage, the way vertical farming companies interact with their users, and each other, shapes the way the industry will grow. As one of the leaders in this domain, Bright Agrotech is a good example of a company that can help pave the way for ethical business within our field.
At its core, Bright Agrotech sells an easy-to-use vertical growing technology called ZipGrow Towers. Made out of food-safe PVC and filled with reusable Matrix Media, ZipGrow Towers are lightweight, versatile, and relatively cheap. The technology allows for scalability, allowing anyone to start growing, regardless of the amount of space available. Using Volumetric farming, matching heights to weight to light, the towers achieve high production rates even in the harshest environments. While the usability of the technology has gotten a lot of attention, it is the incredible support system behind the product that has been the catalyst for the company’s success. In addition to having excellent customer service, Bright Agrotech provides free consulting services, instructional videos and documents to help clients get started.
The company’s motto is simple: focus on the farmer. The driving force between this customer-centric path is founder and CEO Nate Storey. I recently had the chance to speak with Nate on the phone. I caught him during his layover in L.A, on the way to Singapore for 4 days. I can’t help but mention the endurance of the flight for such a short trip. He laughs and adds that he is also stopping by China on the way to meet with farmers and check some installations their distributor set-up. This is the perfect example of the type of effort Bright AgroTech takes to forge personal relationships with its clients. This dedication has led ZipGrow towers to be used on all continents apart from Antartica. “ But we’re working on it,” Nate adds. Nate believes the success of his company depends on how productive farmers are when using his product.
"The reality is that vertical farming is doing well, our company has tripled every year for the past four years, same for our farmers, they are mostly small and out-of-sight, out-of-mind people growing with 1000-3000sq ft.”
Dealing with small, start-up farms is what Nate likes to focus on.
"Bigger is not better. I believe that the focus should be on production, not on size, because its easy to get things wrong when you go really big, really fast. I think it is happening in the industry on some level. I want to start with individuals who really know their community so that it grows more organically. I want people to invest small amounts and get returns by investing in their community.”
When I asked him to expand what direction he believes the industry is going, he says it will be comprised of two extremes: on one end, mega producers using vertical farming on a big scale, on the other end, a large eco-system of small producers looking to fulfill a niche market. For his part, Nate is looking to empower the small and medium producers. He explains that during 80s and 90s there was a big structural change in greenhouse industry that caused everyone to go bigger and bigger. The market forces at the time meant economies of scale was the only way to make any money. To avoid this from happening again, Bright Agrotech is looking to develop technology for small and medium growers that allows them to operate more efficiently and in a way that makes economies of scale less of a focus. Rather, Nate wants farmers to become more sustainable in growing their business.
"We think about the future that we want to exist in but also focus on what we can do right now to help small growers grow."
One of the areas in which the Zipgrow towers deliver their highest value is by making underutilized space more productive. Some of the best traction Bright Agrotech has is in very harsh climates and very remote places. For example in the indoor growing side, growers are more in northern US, canada, Alaska. Nate is also looking to place more of his towers within urban areas, where soil access and conditions make it hard to grow fresh produce. He wants to push living walls as being more than ornamental and use them to increase access to food. Organizationally, they are looking at how to use vertical space in neighborhoods that are considered food deserts.
While the towers have started making their impact amongst vertical growers, the company has still a long way to go in terms of direct integration. The technology is gaining more and more traction but is not yet adopted on a very wide scale. For example, the towers were designed to deliver value at every single point of the user chain. One of those points is the end-user, the customer, buying produce while grocery shopping. The ZipGrow towers enables supermarkets to hang the towers directly in the store, allowing customers to harvest their own product, ensuring the freshest quality possible. However, this use has not been widely adopted as they have found people are still intimidated by this process. There has been a bit more success in other areas where the end-consumer is a bit more removed. Some restaurants, for example, have adopted the technology and integrated it directly into they space for consumers to enjoy and chefs to cook with.
“When you try to blend functional and aesthetics it often means compromising on one or the other, but with these towers you reach the full benefit of both” Nate explains. He hopes that down the road, people will become more familiar with the technology and adopt it within their environment more easily. That is why every Bright Agrotech client receives full support in their endeavors to grow, even if it means a personal visit for training.
“Our entire future is based on the fact that our user base will be growing more and expanding and buying. We can’t be successful if our clients aren’t. That is why we are passionate on helping them succeed through consulting, helping them pricing…”
I finally ask him what is next for Bright Agrotech. Nate hesitates a bit and finally tells me that we can expect to see more hardware coming out of the company down the road but does not expand further.
One thing is sure, the intentions behind Bright Agrotech are a refreshing and encouraging sign of the way in which vertical farming is evolving: with a locally-focused mind and open-source technology sharing of information. The field of agriculture needs an infusion of good ethics and Bright Agrotech as a leader is doing a good job of setting the tone.
Julie Buisson is founder of Modernature and Lead Contributor at Agritecture.com - Read Julie’s other posts here.
