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Tuesday / February 4. 2025

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HomePosts Tagged "Future Crops"
Europe, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy

Future Crops finds greener pastures, zero carbon emissions in wind power and solar energy.

Netherlands based Future Crops, Ltd., has taken its vertical farm a further step off the grid by shifting to reliance on 100 per cent renewable energy. Harnessing the natural green powers of solar and wind energy, the company also is solving the primary hurdle to bringing the industry to a substantially greater carbon-neutral position, all while advancing its sustainability goals.

Over the past decade, vertical farms have been cropping up as creative method of boosting food resilience and bringing food sources closer to home. Multistory indoor farming optimizes land use by growing food from the ground up in designated horticultural regions or even within dense urban localities. However, this method of growing crops in a controlled indoor environment can be energy intensive.

Future Crops operates a state-of-the art, multilevel indoor vertical farm in ABC Westland, Netherlands, the greenhouse hub of Europe. The facility grows a broad portfolio of pesticide-free leafy green vegetables and herbs. While many such facilities rely on hydroponics, the scale-up developed a unique, proprietary soil substrate in which to grow crops, bringing the vertical farm concept closer to nature and the earth.

“Vertical farming is an emerging industry that is gaining traction due to its multiple virtues,” explains Gary Grinspan, co-founder and CEO of Future Crops. “We are able to grow tremendous amounts of high-value food on a much smaller stretch of land—approximately 5% of the land required for conventional agriculture. And having no reliance on seasonality amplifies growing cycles tenfold. This means we can grow more, faster while concurrently cutting the food mileage. Our produce also has a naturally longer shelf-life which cuts food waste and eliminates ecotoxicity to people and the earth since no pesticides or harmful chemicals are required. The Future Crops system also addresses the downside of the controlled indoor methods of growing crops: high energy consumption due to crops being unable to soak up natural sunlight.”

Future Crops finds greener pastures, zero carbon

Agrotech, Finance, Organic

Tencent’s investment reflects the company’s focus on sustainable innovations and support for technologies.

An Israeli-Dutch venture, Future Crops has announced a new investment round led by Tencent to accelerate growth. Future Crops is shaping the future of agriculture and our food system, making it more safe, resilient, and efficient.

Future Crops has developed advanced vertical farming from cutting-edge technology that uses a unique soil-like substrate to better reproduce the natural environment. The high-tech farm grows fresh, clean, ultra-sustainable, high quality crops at competitive price points. Researchers from Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) were an integral part of the team that developed Future Crops’ cutting-edge technology.

Future Crops had already raised over $30 million in seed funding from a private equity arm run by the Lerman Family, leaders in the American steel industry to finance the construction of their state-of-the-art facility and to build their team of experts. This is the first time Future Crops has sought investment beyond its initial round of funding.

Gary Grinspan, CEO and Co-Founder of Future Crops said, “Tencent’s investment reflects the company’s focus on sustainable innovations and support for technologies, like vertical farming, which can create clean, locally grown sustainable food while helping to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. We believe our soil-substrate-based platform is closer to nature and produces fresh, longer-lasting, higher-quality produce at improved yields, as plants grow best in soil”.

Grinspan also added that we’re already supplying fresh high-quality herbs to leading European retailers, both under private label and our own brand. Currently, we market all our produce, so this investment will allow us to expand our capacities to meet demand and continue to increase our R&D capabilities and develop proprietary technology.

“Tencent supports companies creating solutions to the world’s most critical challenges, including technologies that can feed more people using fewer resources” said Ling Ge, Chief European Representative, Tencent. “Investments in sustainable agriculture technologies, such as vertical farm systems, aligns with our mission to apply technology for good.”

Tencent’s investment reflects the company’s focus on

Agrotech, Europe, Seeds, Start ups

The start-up has finalised negotiations with the ARO Institute to purchase exclusive licensing rights to these seeds for commercialisation worldwide

AgriTech start-up Future Crops is boosting output of a pure, high-yielding basil variety it successfully adapted for cultivation in the company’s primarily solar-powered 2,000m2 vertical farm. The advanced, clean-farming technique for this aromatic basil variety will impart a long shelf life and secure a steady supply of locally grown, pesticide-free herb to the European market.

The proprietary seeds were developed at the Israeli Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) by Nativ Dudai, professor and head of The Unit of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. Dudai is considered a prominent global figure in the mapping, breeding and development of basil varieties. His research team was the first in the world to sequence the whole sweet basil genome.

Thanks to extensive shared agronomical know-how and access to Professor Dudai’s impressive seed bank and database, basil seeds harbouring all the desired traits were selected and brought together via a process of natural breeding to create the perfect seed for cultivation in a vertical farm. This was achieved without genetic modifications or editing. Dudai notes that the team has developed several different herb seed varieties via this method. The start-up has finalised negotiations with the ARO Institute to purchase exclusive licensing rights to these seeds for commercialisation worldwide.

Future Crops grows a range of basil varieties, including cinnamon, lemon, lime, and Thai basil. With a focus on the retail and foodservice sectors, the company says it is also targeting food producers, especially makers of pesto.

The start-up has finalised negotiations with the