Growers discuss why urban agriculture deserves more attention

AUSTIN, Texas — Among chefs, alt-meat ambassadors, agtech startups and foodie fundraisers, urban agriculture advocates came together at the 2023 SXSW Conference for a panel called “Rethinking Urban Agriculture.”

Panelists included farmers growing under an acre to fully scaled, expansive indoor ag operations — growers united in their belief that growing food close to the end consumer has more benefits than meets the eye.

The panel was hosted by Foodtank, a nonprofit think tank, during a SXSW-sponsored summit March 12, at Huston-Tillotson University in East Austin.

“Urban farming is, in some ways, a beautiful umbrella term for many different types of activities, right?” said Viraj Puri, co-founder and CEO of greenhouse-based urban farm company Gotham Greens, setting the stage for a lively panel discussion.   

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From classroom gardens and community farms to commercial-scale, controlled environment agriculture operations serving large institutions and supermarkets, all are approaches to growing food that fall under the wide spectrum of practices labeled as urban farming, Puri said.

“They're all rooted — no pun intended — in the common desire to bring us closer to our food system and to improve diets improve the health of the planet,” he said.

Advantages to growing closer to home

For farmer Tiffany Washington, the impetus to start her small-scale urban farm, Dobbin-Kauv Farm in East Austin, was personal and cultural.

“We've had this disconnection within marginalized and vulnerable communities that is being left behind,” Washington said. “For me, it's just been all about starting a farm — I call it B.I.G. A.G., which is to 'Be, Inspire, Grow and Affirm Greatness.’ When it comes to supporting Black agriculture, that’s what I’m doing.”

Like Washington, Jacob Pechenik starting farming in an urban setting in Austin.

He began with an aquaponic venture called Aquadulce. After learning the ins and outs of aquaponics, Pechenik launched Lettuce Grow with actress Zooey Deschanel. Instead of selling the lettuce in supermarkets, Lettuce Grow sells an entire at-home hydroponic growing system that thrives indoors and outdoors in backyards and kitchens. According to Pechenik, both agricultural ventures were focused on his search to find a better way to farm.

“That’s what really led me to start Lettuce Grow … I wanted to rethink to the model of distributing fresh food while also reconnecting with the individual,” Pechenik said.

Puri launched Gotham Greens while living in New York City. He viewed the circuitous journey of lettuce — grown on farms in Western states and then shipped across the country to supermarkets and restaurants in the Northeast — as wildly inefficient.

“You have 9 million people in New York City and 25 million in the metro area. It’s responsible for 10-15% of all leafy greens consumed in the United States,” Puri said. “And 99% of the time, these leafy greens were grown in drought-stricken areas of California and Arizona, spending almost 40 gallons of water to grow single head of lettuce and then shipping it across the country.”

Puri thought he could do better.

“I was like, ‘Hey, we can grow the same head of lettuce using 3 gallons of water, and we don't have to ship across the country.’ That would be a compelling benefit for people,” Puri said.

Marc Oshima, co-founder and chief marketing officer at AeroFarms, also saw inefficiencies in the current state of growing greens. For him, it came down to leveraging technology to reimagine how to grow food.

“It’s been exciting for us to think about how we use technology so we can help address quality, shelf life, ensuring flavor, and nutrient density. The control and the precision we can have in our systems allows us to be able to think about we call growing algorithms,” Oshima said. “It allows us to be much more efficient; we use 95% less water and no pesticides. More importantly, we have that high quality all year-round.”

During the pandemic, local urban farms rose to the occasion

While Gotham Greens now gets 90% of its sales from supermarkets, the grower was lucky to get one small spot on the lettuce category 10 years ago, said Puri.

“When pandemic happened, all the supermarkets came to us asking, ‘Can you give us more product?’ People were rushing to the grocery store, and there were no workers in the fields in California. They couldn't just call a truck in California and say send product over,” Puri said.

Local urban farms were able to step up, leveraging simple supply chains and proximity to provide New York City markets with the much-needed produce.

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“So, you walk into the supermarket in New York City in the middle of March to end of March 2020 and 50% of that produce section [is] our product and our fellow local farmers. I think that was eye-opening for the big supermarkets,” Puri said, adding that the unintentional object lesson provided by the pandemic demonstrated the strengths of local urban agriculture.

“We've heard a lot about supply chains. What is local urban farming? It's supply chain resiliency,” Puri said.

Tackling regulatory hurdles

“In terms of challenges, even though there's such a huge variety of types of urban gardening projects, one common thread is a challenge with the regulatory landscape,” Puri said.

As agriculture has shifted to largely rural areas, zoning, regulations and ordinances pose challenges for urban ag of all sizes, whether it’s the town, city, state or federal level, Puri added.

“Education is really key here,” said Oshima of AeroFarms. “What we want to try to do is think about how we amplify the different stories that we're hearing. Not only for the consumer, but also the regulatory environment.”

With other indoor ag and greenhouse growers, AeroFarms started the CEA Alliance, Oshima said.

“Now that's representing the industry to hopefully be able to set the standards, certifications and work closely on policy, food safety, and on the Hill to be able to help increase awareness,” he continued.  

One of the major policy topics for indoor growers right now is the next farm bill.

“Last year, I had a chance to testify in front of the House ag committee, and it was the first time an indoor grower had that platform,” Oshima said.

According to Oshima, this is just the beginning. Not only will the industry continue to come together and tell its stories to both consumers and Congress, but with climate change and increasingly extreme weather events, there will be more unpredictability.

“Indoor growing can be one of the solutions that help,” Oshima said.