Vertical, indoor grower AeroFarms expands all the ways

Dramatic changes are brewing at Newark, N.J.-based AeroFarms, an indoor, aeroponic vertical farming company, the result of testing hundreds of varieties of greens, as well as research and development in more technology, sustainability and taste.

The company is expanding its line, overall product portfolio and market region, said Marc Oshima, chief marketing officer and cofounder.

The rebranding with a new logo, retail line and package design, as well as other company developments, are part of shifting marketplace needs accelerated by the pandemic.

“The last year alone, we had over 5 billion media impressions. We’re at the nexus of all this convergence,” Oshima said. “There’s a need for more and different types of growing methods.”

The transformed website opens with a fast, hyperlapsed video of growing microgreens, celebrity chef David Chang of Momofuku cooking with the greens and diners enjoying the greens at the table together.

The company trademarked a new catchphrase: “Agriculture, Elevated.” There’s also the patented FlavorSpectrum of product offerings, each color-coded like the rainbow to reflect where the flavor falls on the taste spectrum. Consumers can distinguish tasting notes of sweet, earthy, zesty, floral, umami and anise, among other flavors.

Launching in store in the beginning of May, the retail brand has transitioned from Dream Greens to using the company name itself, a way to share the food source immediately and provide more name recognition tied to the company’s storytelling. The modern, all-caps font shows authority, and the “E” resembles the vertical rows of greens inside the farm facilities and the speedy growth rate.

Consumers want to know more about their food, where and how it’s grown and prepared.

“When we launched our retail brand, people weren’t as interested in the technology, years ago. Now they’re really, not just embracing technology, they’re leaning in,” Oshima said. “So this is an opportunity for us to be able to pull together one consolidated brand when we go to market. It’s part of how we leverage some of that history and legacy.”

The geographic expansion is significant too.

On April 29, the company broke ground on its largest facility to date, a 140,000-square-foot aeroponic farm facility in Danville, Va.

The company’s proprietary growing methods make efficient use of water, light and nutrients for fast, targeted growth, hardiness, flavor and texture, geared for commercial scale customers, he said. Expansion is also continuing in selling research and development expertise to Fortune 500 companies.

Also, the company hired Dane Almassy as vice president of sales. Almassy grew up on a family farm in New Jersey and worked for PepsiCo, then EarthBound Farm, Aurora Organic Dairy and F&S Produce.

“I’ve always had a passion for sustainable agriculture and farming,” he said, tailoring that desire at AeroFarms toward consumer preferences on a commercial scale. “It’s nice to be able to take the sweetness of our kale and the peppery-ness of our arugula and share that with everybody.”

Almassy said the company is adding more microgreens to the product line as awareness grows that these varieties can be more than salad toppers.

“They can take the center of the plate,” he said.

Baby greens include arugula, bok choy, watercress and kale. Micro broccoli, rainbow mix, kale and arugula will join the microgreen lineup of super mix and spicy mix.

AeroFarms has won more than 50 awards since its founding in 2004, for innovation, sustainability initiatives and more.

As a mission-driven, Certified B Corporation, AeroFarms is trying to solve problems beyond the company’s bottom line, for the industry, all people and the planet, including issues with the supply chain, arable land loss, water scarcity, overuse of pesticides and population growth.

Mission efforts include:

• Founding member of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition, where Oshima serves on the board of directors;
• Recipient of several grants from Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research and founding member of the Precision Indoor Plants Consortium; and
• Chief Technology Officer Roger Buelow is on the USDA-Agricultural Research Service Grand Challenge advisory board.

The first CEA certification, called CEA Safe, is about to be rolled out to create clear, consistent safe standards for all greenhouse and indoor growers, Oshima said.

“This is a major development because we had to do a lot of work educating FDA, educating at CDC the differences in our growing practices,” he said. “The challenges are getting heightened every year. We’re thinking about the overall industry and how to help everybody move forward.”