Sharing Economy x Unused Backyards in Cities x Vertical Hydroponics = Hyperlocal food production
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Prototype of Vertical Hydroponics System in Alexander's Backyard (co-founder).
It is estimated that the meals in the United States travel about 1,500 miles to get from farm to plate. Urbanization has only increased, and fewer foods are being produced within cities.
My friend Alexander and I were living in 📍San Francisco, CA and realized that very few people were using their back yards. A quick Google search suggested this is a pattern in New York City and most other metros.
44th and Balboa in San Francisco via Google Earth
Alexander was very familiar with modern agricultural practices like aquaponics and hydroponics, which run nutrient-rich, recycled water through the roots of plants in enclosed systems. We realized if you could use vertical hydroponics, then we could produce more food per square foot than traditional farming. The combined value was incredible: 3x turns, 1.5x growth rates, 80% less water, zero pesticides.
<aside> 💡 We believed placing vertical hydroponic greenhouses in rented backyards of densely populated cities could drive costs low enough to reach parity with large mono-crop farms, and we could sell to local residences, restaurants, and stores.
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We quickly built a prototype in his backyard, and threw a salad party (literally 🥗🎉) with our first harvest. After speaking with ~50 prospects inside of Home Depot and surveying our network, we had 4 agreements in place to build garden's in people's backyards. Within a couple short months, we had our first greenhouse farm up and running (see here for what must be the most difficult user onboarding experience in my life!).
Test market in the Inner Richmond district of San Francisco.