New York City start-up, Bowery, is making waves in the organic food industry with their use of indoor vertical farming. After raising $20 million in Series A funding last summer, the company is currently in the process of building their second vertical farm in Kearny, New Jersey.
The start-up intends to revolutionise farming and provide a solution to impending water scarcity. “We’re growing post-organic produce, It’s the next evolution,” Irving Fain, Bowery’s CEO and founder, told Fortune. He added, “It’s a better product for us and better way of growing and less destructive to the earth, we’re using technology to grow the purest food possible.”
“By meticulously monitoring the growing process and capturing a tremendous amount of data along the way, we’re able to remove the age-old reliance on “eyeballing,” the team at Bowery explain on their website. “We can give our crops exactly what they need and nothing more – from nutrients and water to light.”
Bowery is more efficient than traditional farmland, Fain also told Fortune. This is due to the environmentally controlled element of the process, outdoor, conventional, farms across the world are subject to seasons and the hand of mother nature, Bowery’s new indoor vertical farms are exempt to this. The vertical farms can consistently produce the same level of good quality crops all year round. “We see very strong demand nationally and internationally right now for high quality locally produced consistent produce,” Fain claimed.
“At Bowery, we’re re-thinking what agriculture looks like in a world where water is scarce, people live in cities, and we’re waking up to the dangers of pesticides and other chemicals,” the team explains. “Our post-organic produce comes from a growing process that not only has a positive impact on our health but the health of the world around us.”
Arugula, baby kale, and butterhead lettuce are just some of the crops currently available across New York City that Bowery grows using the expert software in their environmentally controlled vertical farms. Foragers Market and Whole Foods on Broad Street are two of the locations where the company’s produce can currently be purchased.
Image Credit: Bowery
