Braddock indoor vertical farm will produce over 500,000 pounds of lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula and herbs
Image: RoBotany will construct Braddock indoor vertical farm in Pittsburgh. Photo: courtesy of Daniel Albany from Pixabay.
Fifth Season, originally founded as RoBotany, has unveiled plans to construct a commercial-scale indoor vertical farm in Braddock near Pittsburgh, US.
Expected to open in early 2020, the new 60,000ft² vertical farm will serve as new vertical agriculture standard for safe and production of pesticide-free leafy greens and herbs in urban communities.
Braddock indoor vertical farm to grow fresh produce for Pittsburgh-area
Fifth Season developed and advanced its technology with two R&D vertical farms in the South Side neighbourhood of Pittsburgh.
The leafy greens produced at the farms are sold at local retailers such as Giant Eagle and Whole Foods Market, as well as Pittsburgh restaurants such as Superior Motors, honeygrow and Kahuna.
The facility, which will be partially solar-powered, uses advanced robotics technology to grow affordable fresh produce.
Produce from Braddock’s production farm will also be supplied to the grocery stores and restaurants in Pittsburgh-area.
The ideal growing environment at Braddock farm will help deliver pure produce in any season.
Braddock farm will produce more than 500,000 pounds of lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula and herbs from its 25,000ft² grow room during the first full year of operation.
Fifth Season co-founder and CEO said: “The goal through our first three years of development was to prove we could bring fresh food to urban customers at prices competitive with conventionally grown produce.
“We have developed fully integrated, proprietary technology to completely control the hydroponic growing process and optimise key factors such as energy, labour usage and crop output.
“The result is a vertical farm design that has over twice the efficiency and grow capacity of traditional vertical farms. Our unprecedented low costs set a new standard for the future of the industry.”
Fifth Season is a consumer-focused technology company, which was incubated at Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Swartz Centre for Entrepreneurship, an alliance of CMU’s business, robotics and other schools.
To date, the company has gathered more than $35m form Drive Capital and other private investors.