Kimbal Musk — Elon's brother — is running a shipping container farm compound in New York City
Kimbal Musk (Elon's brother) is trying to change the way we eat by creating what he calls a "real food revolution."
For over a decade, Musk has run two restaurant chains, The Kitchen and Next Door, which serve dishes made strictly with locally-sourced meat and veggies. Since 2011, his nonprofit program has installed "Learning Gardens" in over 300 schools to teach kids about agriculture.
Musk's latest food venture delves into the world of local urban farming.
In early November 2016, he and fellow entrepreneur Tobias Peggs launched Square Roots, an urban farming incubator program in Brooklyn, New York. The setup consists of 10 steel shipping container farms where young entrepreneurs work to develop vertical farming startup businesses. Unlike traditional outdoor farms, vertical farms grow soil-free crops indoors and under LED lights.
On July 18, Square Roots opened applications for its second season, which will start in October and last 13 months.
"Graduates are uniquely positioned to embark on a lifetime of real food entrepreneurship — with the knowhow to build a thriving, responsible business. The opportunities in front of them will be endless," Musk wrote on Medium.
Six weeks into the first season, just after the entrepreneurs completed their first harvests, Business Insider got a tour of the farms. Take a look below.
SEE ALSO: The world's largest vertical farm will produce 2 million pounds of lettuce every year
The Square Roots farms in Brooklyn sit between an old Pfizer factory and the apartment building where Jay-Z grew up.
Everything grows inside 320-square-foot steel shipping containers. Each container can produce about 50,000 mini-heads of lettuce per year.
The USDA gave the Square Roots entrepreneurs small loans to cover preliminary operating expenses. Other investors include Powerplant Ventures, GroundUp, Lightbank, and FoodTech Angels.
On four parallel walls, leafy greens and herbs sprout from soil-free growing beds filled with nutrient-rich water. Instead of sunlight, they rely on hanging blue and pink LED rope lights.
About the size of the standard one-car garage, each shipping container can produce the same amount of crops as two acres of outdoor farmland.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Contributer : Tech Insider http://ift.tt/2tCncqN
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