River Falls Rotary member Mike Thompson is a scientist with a PhD in molecular biology whose career has focused on the interface between science and business. Mike spoke to the club about his new business, Kairos Indoor Ag, growing greens in an indoor vertical farm. Using some unconventional methods to provide water and 17 essential nutrients, the "farm" grows several varieties of lettuce and herbs, with the produce sold to stores, restaurants, and individuals.
The farm consists of many vertical cylinders called “Flex Farms” with central grow lights on the inside and 288 holes for the plants with the roots growing in the walls of the cylinders. Water with nutrients is trickled over the roots 4 times a day. When comparing a 90-day period for one acre of land to 2904 Flex Farms (the hydroponic cylinders), land produces one crop to Flex Farms 4 crops, land 26,000 heads of lettuce to Flex Farms 1,672,704 heads, land uses 1.3 million gallons of water to Flex Farms 214,896 gallons. That means one head of lettuce needs 38 gallons on land but only about 1/10th gallon per head in the Flex Farms.
Transportation of the produce is also a factor. Year-round lettuce comes from California. Since the Kairos Indoor Ag farm is in River Falls, almost no travel is needed to get the product into local restaurants and grocery stores. Flex Farms use water more efficiently, which matters because the world only has a set amount of water and 97% of the earth’s water is unusable salty ocean water. That leaves only 3% of the earth’s water and humans use 1% of the earth’s water for residential, manufacturing and agriculture.
As an aside, Mike noted that in Wisconsin alone 290 million gallons are used for domestic uses each day. Collectively, we could save 3.1 billion gallons a year by reducing shower time by one minute.
Vertical farming has several benefits such as all-year production, higher yields, lower cost-basis, reduced CO2 emissions from transportation, reduced water use, pesticide and herbicide free, improved biosecurity, and overcomes the challenges of emerging climate change.
About the Speaker: Mike Thompson is a scientist by training, having earned a PhD in molecular biology. His last 15 years have focused on the application of science at the interface between science and business. Mike says that he is an "entrepreneur by passion", which he's put into practice by leaving his position as a VP at Benson Hill in 2020 to start his own business, Kairos Indoor Ag, which is one of 3 businesses he has founded in the past 3 years.