technology: building a holistic indoor farming system that ... · technology driving economics into...

Technology: Building A Holistic Indoor Farming System That Can Scale Quickly

M a r c h 2 0 1 8

THE PROBLEM

$0B

$40B

$80B

$120B

1976 1984 1992 2000 2008 2016

The Field is Not Meeting Demand

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Fixed supply, surging demand = imports

Sources: USDA, California Department of Agriculture, California Strawberry Commision

Farm-Gate Value by State

California Agriculture Acreage

72%

12% 8%0% 0% 2% 1% 1%

49%

8% 10% 8% 6% 4% 0% 0%

CA WA FL ID AZ OR GA NY

Fruit Vegetables

83% from 3

states

U.S Agriculture Trade Imports

25.4M

25.4M

25.4M

25.4M

25.6M

25.5M

25.5M

25.2M

25.4M

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

~0% YoY growth in California farmland 40,816

38,937

38,100

36,039

2013 2014 2015 2016

California Strawberry Acreage

Unconstrained Agriculture


Indoor farming can drastically reduce agriculture’s water and carbon footprint

Source: UN FAO, U.S Geological Survey, Water Footprint Network, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension

237Liters of H20

per Kilogram

of Lettuce

214Liters of H20

per Kilogram

of Tomatoes

347 Liters of H20

per Kilogram

of Strawberries

1,830Transit

Miles

1,823Transit

Miles

1,569Transit

Miles

Conventionally Grown Produce in the USAHabitable Land Allocation (km

Freshwater Pesticide Contamination

51M sq km 39M sq km 12M sq km2M sq km

2M sq km

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

km2

Agriculture Forests Shrub Urban Freshwater

97%61%

3%39%

Stream Water Shallow Ground Water

% of Contaminated Water Samples Detected

Pesticides No Pesticides

96%

Water

94%

Water

92%

Water

Nutritional Content


Genetic modification and lengthy supply chains reduce the nutritional value of fresh produce

Sources: Institute of Food Research, Journal of the American College of Nutrition

Fresh produce loses 45% of its nutritional

value by the time it makes it to the shelf

More Miles = Fewer Nutrients

THE SOLUTION

Why Now?


Technology driving economics into focus

Source: United States Energy Information Administration, MongoDB, mkomo.com

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We’ve Seen This Before


Technological tailwinds drive new industries

Source: mkomo.com, Citi Research, National Institute of Health

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

1995 1999 2003 2007 2011

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DNA SequencingData Storage Lithium IonFoundedIPO

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The Future of Field-Scale Agriculture


Rebuilding agriculture from the ground up in scalable, modular indoor farms

What Does Field-Scale Mean?


An entire field grown on the footprint of a single goal

Depending on crop, productivity per square foot increases 150 – 350x relative to the conventional field.

Hyper-Efficient Water Use


Relative to the field, Plenty uses less water than the starting blocks of a swimming pool

Proprietary irrigation technology uses 1% of the water compared to conventional field

agriculture

2.7x Densities of Stacked Shelf Competitors


Paradigm Shift in Production Density

100 Years Worth of Learning in 3 Years


Collecting more than 10 million data points per month to model perfect plant environment

20MM Data Points

per Farm per Day

29MM Plants per

Farm per Year

Real-Time Tracking

of Temperature,

CO2, Humidity, Air

Pressure, Light, pH

Data drives down operating costs, perfects flavor profiles, and maximizes yield


Global Network of Field-Scale Farms

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