“No, we’re not a threat to traditional farming,” Pantaleo states affirmatively as he scrubs his hands and dons a safety net before opening a heavy door to reveal his high-density, vertical-growing system. Once inside, under the bright pink LED lights, Pantaleo’s sharp, inquisitive eyes and wide, expectant grin seem better situated in a Las Vegas nightclub than an urban farm. Pantaleo found indoor vertical farming almost by accident, as he was searching for a meaningful second career following two decades in the software-licensing business. After a friend introduced him to a vertical farm in Hawaii, Pantaleo became “hopelessly smitten with the world-changing possibilities vertical farming offered.” Then and there, he dedicated himself to learning everything he could about indoor vertical farming, and has since found an opportunity to apply the skills from his previous life to his newfound passion with Urban Produce. “We’re not coming after anyone’s market share,” Pantaleo continues, offering a reassuring smile. “Indoor vertical farming is still a nascent industry with not enough players and not enough capital.” However, Pantaleo does believe that outdoor farmers can learn lessons from the production systems employed in indoor farming. “At its core, vertical farming is about precision agriculture, using science and technology to increase yields while reducing inputs,” Pantaleo explains. While traditional farming has made significant strides in conservation and efficiency in recent years, Pantaleo notes that the industry is still very resource heavy. “I know we can do things to make the industry, as a whole, even more sustainable. Agriculture and ultimately humans can greatly benefit when
technology and science are applied at its highest levels,” he asserts. Like the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come, Pantaleo points to the success of indoor vertical farming in other, often resource- starved countries such as the Netherlands, Singapore, which has less than 250 acres of arable land, and Japan, which is still reeling in the wake of the 2011 tsunami that resulted in the meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and widespread radiation contamination of the island nation’s farm land. Since Fukushima, the number of Japanese vertical farms has almost tripled, from approximately 75 to more than 200. Led by Dr. Toyoki Kozai, the father of Japanese indoor farming and president of the Japan Plant Factory Association, the country has leveraged the tech prowess of several of its major companies, like Panasonic and Fujitsu, to reconstitute old semiconductor facilities into giant factory farms. One such Japanese plant factory, Spread, is capable of harvesting 20,000 heads of lettuce every day. For Pantaleo, the ultimate success of indoor vertical farming, both here and around the world, will come down to capital and intelligence; businesses securing both the financial resources and management capabilities needed to build sophisticated growing systems and expand market opportunities. But, even as this budding industry begins to sink its roots (pun intended), Pantaleo believes the role of vertical farms will never be to replace traditional farmers. Instead, he says, “It should be viewed as complementary to traditional farming, as a way to help the industry to meet the challenges of feeding more people, potentially 10 billion by 2050, with dwindling resources and increasing climate uncertainties.”
18 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2018
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