Innovator Spotlight: Bowery Farming
Kearny, New Jersey
Uniformity and reliability in lighting are key to developing the best environment for our plants. We found Fluence to be the best in terms of providing light uniformity for plants..Henry Sztul, Head of Bowery OS and R&D
Inside Bowery’s Farms of the Future: Growing the Purest Produce Imaginable
Traditional agriculture is facing a myriad of problems: an ever-growing world population, scarcity of arable land, and fresh water accessibility issues. To solve these problems, one of the many ways that Bowery Farming is leading a new wave of innovation in agriculture technology is by using Fluence LED grow lights to cultivate food 365 days a year, in a highly productive and efficient way.
“People are moving to urban areas, but land and water for agriculture is scarce near those areas. So, Bowery developed a system to deliver 100x more produce in terms of land productivity and uses 95% less water than a traditional farm,” said Henry.
We value the ability to partner with Fluence to investigate the impact of various light intensities to provide the ideal recipe to grow plants with the best possible yield, flavor, and taste. This capability doesn’t normally exist in indoor farming and this allows us to get every last leaf into our consumers’ hands. Henry Sztul
Locally Grown, Sustainable Food
Bowery Farming uses RAZR 4 and SPYDRx LED light solutions to create ideal conditions in its vertical farms. The slim form factor and daisy chain connectors of the RAZR Series allows for multi-layered cultivation with fast installation. By growing via controlled environment agricultural methods, Bowery Farming eliminates seasonality issues from its production cycle and cultivates produce which is uniform, consistent and free from contaminant issues which affect traditionally grown crops. Additionally, Bowery is able to locate its production facilities next to New York City, so it can deliver fresh, locally-grown produce to the New York metro area retailers quickly and efficiently. “There is a large market for fresh produce in the NY Metro area and by growing less than 10 miles from NYC, we are able to deliver the purest produce imaginable within just a few days of harvest.”
What is “Modern Farming”
Bowery has reimagined farming to incorporate technology at every level of its production cycle. Instead of thinking of where its workers need to go to tend to the different parts of a farm, Bowery has created a controlled environment operating system to automate repetitive tasks, improve yield and quality of subsequent crops and create efficient and productive workflows. One way Bowery ensures its plants are consistent, healthy and cultivated in food safe and responsible ways, throughout this modern farming workflow is by incorporating Fluence lighting.
“When it comes to LED in our farms, there’s been a lot of great research in academia, but scaling into commercial production has its own set of challenges. We value the ability to partner with Fluence to investigate the impact of various light intensities to provide the ideal recipe to grow plants with the best possible yield, flavor, and taste. This capability doesn’t normally exist in indoor farming and this allows us to get every last leaf into our consumers’ hands.”
