Plenty makes plans to dive into R&D at new Wyoming facility: A Q&A with Nate Storey

Scaling up doesn’t always mean building up and out; sometimes it can involve investing in the capacity to dive deep into research and ask the right questions.

Case in point: California-based indoor grower Plenty Unlimited Inc. has spent nearly a decade learning the ropes and evolving its approach to indoor agriculture and recently has jumped on an opportunity to grow by making a big investment in R&D.  

Plenty has confirmed that it's building the world’s largest and most advanced vertical farming research center in Laramie, Wyo., slated to open in 2025. The project is supported in part by a $20 million grant from the state of Wyoming through the Wyoming Business Council to the city of Laramie to help with construction and infrastructure costs. Additional funding, land and support for the project is being provided by the city of Laramie and the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance.

“Creating this new center of excellence greatly expands Plenty’s ability to transform indoor agriculture,” Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai said in a news release. “We’ve already built one of the top indoor farming research ecosystems in the world in Wyoming. ... This continued commitment to innovation is what’s needed to push indoor farming forward and make fresh food accessible to everyone.”

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Built on 16 acres, Plenty’s new research center is projected to span 60,000 square feet. The new facility will double Plenty’s research space compared to its previous Laramie facility that it has occupied since 2016. What’s more, the new research facility will diversify the grower’s research environments and support the transition of new crops to commercial farms.

To learn more about Plenty's recent investments into R&D, its plans for a new center and what this means, The Packer recently connected with Plenty co-founder and Chief Science Officer Nate Storey.

The Packer: How does this new R&D facility in Laramie, Wyo., fit into Plenty’s strategic growth plan?

Storey: Plenty’s mission is to provide fresh food to everyone, everywhere. At the heart of how we make progress toward that mission is our research and development. Expanding our plant science research work with this new center will expand our capability to grow the widest variety of crops and accelerate our pipeline, which is key to unlocking the potential of this category and addresses a major limitation for the industry today. 

The new facility will also support the transition of new crops to commercial farms by incorporating areas that more closely mirror Plenty farm environments. We’ve grown 1,400-plus cultivars in our system thus far and will continue pushing to perfect and commercialize a wider variety of crops through the work done in our plant science research center.

What makes this new plant science research center so innovative?

With plans to span more than 60,000 square feet, the new research center will be the world’s largest vertical farming research center. It will double Plenty’s research space, which is already one of the top indoor farming research ecosystems. It will also diversify Plenty’s research environments, including more closely mirroring its farms to support the transition of new crops to commercial farms.

Beyond leafy greens, what are the first crops you plan on trialing the new facility in Laramie, Wyo.?

In our current plant science research center in Laramie, working toward commercialization of strawberries and tomatoes is our primary crop focus, but we’ve grown more than 50 different crops in our vertical grow systems so far.

Doubling our research space will give the ability to expand our efforts on both commercial crops and new crop research, so I expect we’ll be experimenting with an even wider variety of crops in that new space. We’ll have a lot more learnings by the time this space opens in 2025, so time will tell which specific crops will make up the bulk of our initial focus in the new space.

When do you anticipate the R&D facility will open its doors?

We plan to begin construction later this year and open the facility in early 2025. Our team and research work will transfer to the new facility from our current Laramie location once it’s completed.

What direction do you see indoor agriculture evolving over the next few years?

Compared to field agriculture, indoor farming is still in the very early stages — particularly vertical farming.

I think indoor farming has tremendous potential to create stable, regional supplies of fresh, healthy food for all communities. In my opinion, companies in our space will have to put R&D at the heart of their operations to drive the diversification and unit economics needed to scale.

Can you share some insight on Plenty's grant process with the state of Wyoming?

This project was developed over time in close partnership with the Wyoming Business Council, the city of Laramie and the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance. All were instrumental in developing the proposal and helping garner the support necessary to secure the grant, as were our partners at Hickey and Associates.

Is this expansion towards the middle of the country a signal that Plenty will continue to expand across the U.S.?

We’ve had an R&D base in Laramie since our inception. While the work we do there makes it possible to expand the diversity of crops we grow and optimize them for commercial production, we look at our Laramie location separately from our commercial farms.

On the commercial front, we’re expanding to the East Coast, with the world’s largest indoor vertical farm campus near Richmond, Va. We’ve broken ground on the campus’s first farm, which is the world’s first indoor vertical farm to grow strawberries at scale. Together with our partner Driscoll’s, we expect to have berries in the market from that farm next year.  

Do you foresee commercial production taking place at your Compton, Calif., facility exclusively, or do you plan to add additional facilities in the future?

Compton is just the start of our commercial production. We’ve already broken ground on our next farm near Richmond, Va., which will be focused on growing strawberries. We expect to have strawberries in the Northeast market with our partner, Driscoll’s, next year.

We’re working to expand access to fresh food, so we’ll continue to explore opportunities in communities both nationally and internationally where we can have the greatest impact.

What are you most excited about for Plenty in 2023?

Plenty has big ambitions to change the future of food by making affordable fresh food accessible to everyone, everywhere. This is just the beginning of Plenty's work to scale its impact by expanding its footprint, diversifying the crops it grows and teaming up with some of the biggest names in retail and produce.

What challenges do you anticipate navigating in the coming year?

Indoor growers have the potential to take some of the strain off outdoor field growers and increase the stability of the food supply chain. Plenty is working to solve two critical problems for the vertical farming industry: scale and variety.

Over the coming year we’ll be focused on making progress there by fully ramping our Compton facility, completing our Virginia strawberry farm, commercializing new crops and leveraging our tech to continue driving down costs.