Scott Prendergast, chief information officer at the company’s 5-hectare greenhouse facility in Balviderre, NJ, with his son Boston and daughter Ivan. Photographs for a food garden
Organic Hydroponic Food has improved the technology game by improving edible garden production planning and product availability management.
Starting with a 5-hectare glass greenhouse facility across the United States with 4-inch clay plants, hydroponics basil, live and lettuce, orchestra certified by the orchestra at Belviderre, NJ, Agent Garden. In addition to its own production, edible gardens have contracts with gardeners in other regions, including Midwest, to supply organic crops to retailers in the region. The edible garden distributes its products through some 4,500 retail outlets, including Walmart, Major, Hanaford, Wakefield Food Corporation, and Target. Its geographical products are sold from Maine to Maryland to the south and Wisconsin to the west
“We now have supply agreements with a number of contract producers in the Middle East,” said Edley Garden’s chief information officer. Until last year, we were able to grow almost all of our products from the Belvidere facility with a small contract. The farmers we work with grow a variety of crops that cover all of our produce. Some farmers grow only food for the garden, while for others, edible vegetables are just one of their main sources of production. These growers are also growing most of the edible vegetables.
The two-year-old gardener has been the sole supplier of 4-inch pottery, chopped herbs, lettuce and hydroponic basil to 260 Meijer stores in the Midwest.
“We first supplied these products from our facility in Bellevide,” said Pendergast. “Our slogan” is simply local. Simply hot. “Our goal is to reduce food miles, support the environment and provide the best quality. We wanted to deliver Meijer stores a new, more sustainable product using less manufacturing and shipping processes. We have done this over the past six months by transferring almost all of our Major products to our Midwest Contractors. This allowed us to reduce food production by 1,000 miles three times a week.
Why organic food crops?
The edible garden, which began operating in March 2012, initially planned to grow a small container plant to grow flowering plants. As market conditions changed and market opportunities became known, the acquisition of greenhouse organic became a priority for the company.
“We see market opportunities with organic crops,” said Predgast. There was a small box competition and general or non-organic products on the market. Recognizing our ability to produce high-quality greenhouse-grown, certified-organic products stimulated our efforts to grow organic.
“The process of becoming a certified organic organ took two years. Growing from organic production to organic was a difficult transition. Not being able to use similar products related to traditional growth, including fertilizers, fertilizers and pesticides. To produce the same quality using all organic materials, our crops had to be grown in the same production systems.
The company started producing 4-inch pottery and then added a line of fresh cut plants.
“After we started growing pottery, we became a new supplier of cut plants to the northeast for restaurant chains and distributors,” says Prendergast. We only offer Basil in bulk. From New York to Washington, DC, we offer fresh greens and freshly cut organic sweet basil to restaurants. ”
It has made some live broadcasts to individual grocery stores for some food chain chains.
“High shipping costs, including gas and lease prices, have led to the relocation of a edible garden to a distribution center,” said Prendergast. “Ninety-five percent of our produce is vegetables and 5 percent is lettuce. We plan to increase the amount of salad we produce. Our goal is to be able to grow and distribute the salad locally. We have seen this served for the first time on a sliced salad at Meijer, which uses two or less DC-matched gardeners.
By correctly adjusting the numbers
When it comes to how to grow edible garden crops, another issue that needs to be addressed is deciding how much to produce.
“Uncertainty over supply and demand has led to unsafe crops,” Prendergast said. “You have to fully select, pack and ship in the manufacturing industry. Our management team, which comes from the commercial banking industry, always tries to make more than enough mistakes. Unfortunately, there are so many that we throw away plants because they are too big to sell. That was a loss for our bottom line.
“Edible Garden CFO Mike James Mantra We are in the coin business. If we overeat 1,000 pots of basil plants, 1,000 pots and 18,000 basil seeds will be discarded. In those pots we throw away the substrate, fertilizer, water and energy used to grow the crop. The need to adapt to technology was due to the fact that there were no margins to absorb such errors. We have to use every tool we have and have every penny we can. ”
When Prendergast joined the edible garden two years ago, the big sticker point was the lack of advanced planning and product availability.
“The edible garden was dumping a lot of stock because it didn’t properly assess the customer base sales,” he said. “Over the past two years, the company has built a greenhouse management facility in the greenhouse. Conducts crop estimates, monitors waste, and develops advanced forecasts.
“The Green Thumb System is called upon to monitor daily sowing, selection and packaging activities as well as customer sales forecasts and advanced planning. The system not only predicts demand, but also monitors any greenhouse events that may affect storage. It manages this compensation to prevent future problems, future rescue holes.
Members of the Food and Drug Administration team will receive an introduction to the Green Thumb System.
“The team uses handheld devices or laptops to access the data,” says Prendergast. We monitor the growth of what we call the “WTF”. We’ll be watching for weeks to see if it’s up to date and how the weather will be affected. If there are 10 days of cloudy weather in the fall or winter, the system will realize that the crop is expected to be completed within 10 weeks.
As the edible garden began to address issues with inventory management, the company began looking for another technology that could automate other processes.
“Based on our orders, we have developed a flexible palette-construction tool,” Prendergast said. “This construction has created a streamlined process that can be used by the manufacturing company to eliminate any questions about how to fill the order panels.
“On average, we send 80,000 to 100,000 plants a week to just one facility. This requires multiple boards, shipping boxes, boards and purchase orders. Incorporating tools to eliminate or minimize packaging and shipping requests or issues has really provided some benefits to the manufacturer.
For more: Edible garden, (844) 344-3727; ljames@ediblegarden.com; https://ediblegarden.com/.
This article is owned by Urban Og News and was written by freelance writer David Cook in Fort Worth, Texas.