Alan Cottington
Landlogic was inspired by the ambition to lead cutting-edge, emerging technologies, supplying solutions to New Zealand's primary industries. CEO Alan Cottington said that vertical farming systems (VFS) are one of those technologies with the potential to shape the future of farming globally and help feed the world as the industry faces new and more complex challenges.
Landlogic will be setting up a VFS project in Ashburton, a small-scale trial with the potential for large-scale impact on the region.
"From a growing standpoint, VFS creates an ability for growers to adopt vertical farming technology to diversify their business, manage seasonality, and minimise the impact of weather events," said Cottington.
VFS uses minimal land area for the volume of food it can produce, meaning that land use can be maximised by using this technology to grow leafy green, freeing up productive land for growing other produce and subsequently increasing growers' production capabilities.
Cottington continued that there was also an opportunity to specialise in growing out-of-season produce for the region, reducing New Zealand's reliance on imports and associated higher costs for the end user.
"The Ashburton district is New Zealand's largest supplier to the seed industry, with a strong reputation globally. There is now an opportunity to develop seed specifically for the global Vertical Farming industry."
This VFS project will demonstrate the benefits of vertical farming for New Zealand and showcase the technology the system provides potential growers and customers. Cottington hopes the system would give New Zealand and the Pacific confidence to invest in this technology to build sustainable food security.
As a starting point, the Ashburton project will grow a range of leafy green produce, such as lettuce and baby spinach.
Key benefits of the VFS technology include its reduced water consumption, with the system 99 percent more efficient, and it can even be water positive in a humid climate. It requires no chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides and zero human handling of the product. There is also up to 40 percent extra shelf-life of the product, significantly less use of the land area to produce an equal volume of product, accessibility to locally-grown produce year-round, and it also increases resilience to extreme weather, reducing risk.
The strategic position of VFS farms reduces transportation, therefore reducing cost, handling, and risk of road network outages, with the added benefit of a lower carbon footprint. Produce can be grown to demand, with a 28-day growth cycle, consistent yields and quality. Consumer and industry needs can be consistently met.
Finally, the system also creates less food wastage, with New Zealand currently having 3.8 million tonnes of food waste yearly, costing approximately 458 million NZD.
"Not only is this a massive cost to the taxpayer, but it is also a significant waste of nutrition."
Landlogic is the first New Zealand company to supply automated VFS to the country, but it takes much more than just the right equipment to make this successful. Cottington said the company planned to provide New Zealand serviced and supported equipment to the industry along with a network of third-party suppliers providing a system that can grow sustainably and profitably.
"We want to partner with local businesses and talent to create a successful supply chain and job opportunities for Kiwi talent worldwide."
Cottington continued that there was no doubt climate change was happening and accelerating, with agriculture having a significant part to play globally in climate change. However, the agriculture industry has many solutions to slow and reverse the impacts of climate change.
"In New Zealand, we farm better than anywhere in the world, but there are always opportunities to improve. Using technologies such as vertical farming and regenerative agriculture are two key opportunities."
He explained that significant events in New Zealand during the past couple of years have impacted produce growth, including recent and ongoing floods devastating horticulture in the Hawkes Bay and Gisborne area, along with impacts to the roading network out of Gisborne (further impacting the supply chain), through to hail storms in Tasman and drought conditions in Auckland.
Vertical farming addresses these issues by moving the entire farm indoors, with a controlled climate for plants to grow with the right temperature, humidity, airflow, and even the option for CO2.
"We use very little water in comparison with traditional farming. Our Bioponics nutrient system is a closed loop, so it is recirculated, and we even have a transpiration recovery system in our cells. This makes Vertical Farming resilient to climate change and weather events."
Suited best to fast-growing leafy produce such as salad greens, herbs, and microgreens, VFS is being utilised by other companies to develop systems for specialty crops, such as 26 Seasons with strawberries and Fischer Farms in the United Kingdom, even testing crops such as wheat.
Cottington said it took only time and imagination to develop suitable systems. However, while VFS can be adapted to grow many plants, the key is for it to be economically viable, which is why Landlogic focuses on leafy greens.
Landlogic's systems are designed modularly, with four different-sized climate cells that can run up to seven cells on each production line. It can plant and grow to consumer demand and adjust to market demand quickly due to the short growing cycle.
Furthermore, Landlogic systems can grow multiple varieties within the same climate cell to give growers ultimate flexibility to meet their customers' volume needs while providing options on how produce is delivered to the market. The systems can be scaled from 119kgs per week to whatever the business or country needs.
"I can't yet claim there is any unique produce that this would allow us to grow in New Zealand that we could not otherwise grow without doing more research, but some types of herbs, seedlings or produce such as saffron have potential."
He added that there was produce such as root vegetables much better suited to traditional farming at this stage, particularly financially, so he suggested that VFS was an excellent solution to freeing up valuable farmland for these products.
Cottington explained that VFS was one tool in the toolbox of feeding the world, designed to work alongside and complement traditional farming in a new and exciting way. Like the rest of the world, New Zealand is challenged to feed a growing global population on less available land.
"I was astounded at the figures in New Zealand of how much available farmland has decreased during the last 20 years."
This challenge of feeding a growing population has been faced through high-intensity farming and the introduction of synthetic fertilisers and sprays. However, that has created new challenges and negative impacts for the industry.
In New Zealand, Cottington said he felt a need to adopt new technology to complement traditional farming practices while looking at ways of continuously improving or refining traditional practices, moving away from synthetics, as this will be expected of the industry.
VFS implementation in New Zealand would benefit from government investment in sustainable energy growth and reduced power costs.
