South Gondar – Most people see the factory standing on the concrete floor and looking at the cave building at 206 Eut St.
Otto Farou stands in front of his small 1,600-square-foot room and sees a farm. Farrow, a native of Niels, will soon bring indoor hydroponics to the Sibili Center.
The Metropolis Greens, a fruit company, grows leafy greens such as spinach, cabbage and lettuce in structures that resemble shipping containers, but are designed to grow food vertically.
Farrow has little experience in agriculture, but he is an entrepreneur who has spent much of his adult life working in corporate sales, advertising and public relations.
“I have worked for many different companies, and I have always been an entrepreneur in my career,” he said.
Farrow’s work and entrepreneurial experience means that he has always been sensitive to emerging technologies and trends, and believes that the emergence of hydroponic vertical farming will test many boxes.
The theory is enough, such a business is already entrenched in South Bend. Pure Green Farms is growing home-grown lettuce on South Bend Avenue in South Bend, and it made its first shipment to stores earlier this year.
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Farrow, a graduate of Niels High School in 1988, came up with the idea of vertical farming while living in New York, where he moved a few years after graduation. Pharaoh says he needs to get into the world of work.
“I just finished flying,” he recalls. I did not know anyone, but I had some money, so I moved into an apartment in Brooklyn and thought about it.
He worked for a commercial advertising agency, including one. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in public relations and advertising. Pharaoh then went to work in those industries.
New York Farrow has its full entrance to urban agriculture, as well as straight hydroponic farming.
“I have seen many small companies in New York take advantage of hydroponic farming to tackle the food crisis,” he recalls.
The first major event was in Brooklyn, a company called Greens Greens.
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Another company built a straight farm outside of what appeared to be a shipping container that you could see on a freight train.
These efforts aroused Pharaoh’s attention and kept them in mind as they returned to the mission area. 2018. He still didn’t have time to work on the idea because he was still working for Uber.
The plague then emptied the highways, and Pharaoh was fired.
He said the epidemic was a tragedy for the world, but it was fortunate for me, because when the epidemic occurred and when I left work, it allowed me to focus only on what I wanted to do.
Farorow has received a loan from the United States Department of Agriculture, and representatives of the agency will soon be inspecting his site. Froro hopes that it will be operational by October if it is finally approved.
He could then buy two containers for growing food. They are similar to what you see on trucks or boats. ”
He said the benefits of vertical hydroponic farming were not as expensive as traditional farming, or that it did not require much space. He said straight farming does not use as much water as traditional farming.
In vertical farming, crops are grown horizontally rather than horizontally. The seeds are grown in a room, then transferred to vertical growing shelves, where they are exposed to water and LED lights in a container-like structure designed for indoor plants.
Plants do not grow in garbage. Instead, the stems are always fed with water from tanks. The water is recycled, and nutrients are added to the plant to provide proper nutrition.
“Our mission and focus is to develop as high-quality, high-nutritious food as possible and access to food deserts,” he said.
Metropolis Greens says it will allow people to get products like kale within a day or two. He said that when they buy herbs that should be shipped from other parts of the country, they lose up to half of their nutritional value.
“That’s why if you buy any kind of green leaf, you have to use it or it will go away in two or three days,” he said. These products are grown locally, so they can last up to two weeks.
And because they are still tied to their overall system, they can live up to 80 percent of their food prices for up to 30 days.
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Growing food in a climate-controlled building, such as the Sibili Center, means that the pharaoh can grow all year round.
Anne Volley, owner of the Sibley Center, said the containers could have been placed outside.
“We had a large parking lot to accommodate that, but once he saw the building, he realized that it would be better to put the containers in,” he said.
He said he planned to sell the crops in bulk in schools, hospitals and prisons. However, he hopes to train people in the community on a vertical farm. In this way, Faroe, Metropolis Greens has many similarities to community gardens, and it seeks to educate people in the community about urban agriculture.
She said she was looking forward to seeing what Volley Farrow could do.
I was thrilled and excited to see her succeed in this endeavor.
Email Southwood Tribune Reporter Howard Duke at hdukes@gannett.com
Follow him on Twitter @DukesHoward