Vertical Farming Podcast - Conversations with CEOs, Founders & Leaders in AgTech & CEA

Episode SummaryHenry Ernst currently occupies the role of Assessment Manager at Control Union UK Ltd, an organization that specializes in sustainability in agriculture, fisheries, textiles, plastics, timber, biofuels, and food safety. He is the Team Lead for MSC Fisheries Assessments and is passionate about sustainable food production. Today, Henry and Harry discuss plant protection, renewable energy use, sustainability, and the importance of educating consumers on vertical farming.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Henry Ernst joins the show to share his passion for travel, how he ended up in Bilbao, Spain, and his background in Marine Biology13:04 – Food and sustainability18:02 – The origins of vertical farming at Control Union22:21 – Energy use, plant protection, and other vertical farming requirements30:38 – Learning a completely new industry and the importance of educating consumers on vertical farming34:49 – Upcoming projects for Control Union38:30 – A specific ask Henry has for his colleagues in the vertical farming industry39:24 – Harry thanks Henry for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with him and learn more about Control UnionTweetable Quotes“It’s what vertical farming allows, right? It’s this plasticity that you can find where you have to adapt to all these external realities and that kind of informs the production realities. I couldn’t agree with you more. I find that to be one of the most fascinating parts of this whole sector.” (12:50) (Henry)“I’ve found that things just work better when people are all pulling in the same direction and people are all pushing for the same thing.” (14:51) (Henry)“This was absolutely hammered into us that plant protection is an essential part of sustainability when it comes to vertical farming.” (24:34) (Henry)“In order for us to begin that work, we need to start from a point of data collection and continuous improvement to drive sustainable initiatives and practices.” (26:29) (Henry)“The goal really is to just push this forward as much as we possibly can. The feedback that we’ve had is that this has been needed and that this has a place within the industry. We’ve tried our very best to create something that reflects the needs and wants of a wide range of stakeholders. So the job now is to actually implement it, see how it works in action, tweak it as necessary, and grow the program with the industry.” (34:57) (Henry)Resources MentionedHenry’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-ernst-ba7260147/?originalSubdomain=esControl Union – https://uk.controlunion.com/Henry’s Email – [email protected] With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryTristan Fischer has been involved in sustainable energy and sustainable food for over twenty years. He has been the Chairman or CEO of numerous companies, including Fischer Farms, a vertical farming/hydroponics business. Today, Tristan joins the show to discuss the benefits of vertical farm crops over field-grown crops, the looming food security crisis, and the importance of being a kind and empathetic leaderThanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Tristan Fischer joins the show to share his background in finance, the evolution of renewables, and his passion for sustainability17:15 – Vertical farming crops vs. field-grown crops21:54 – Feeding the world: Tristan’s vertical farming origin story31:16 – The inspiration to launch Fischer Farms and how Tristan has grown as a CEO42:12 – The importance of being kind and empathetic45:08 – Fischer Farms’ offerings and ideal clients48:56 – A tough question Tristan has had to ask himself recently51:43 – A specific ask Tristan has for his colleagues in the vertical farming industry52:37 – Harry thanks Tristan for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with him and learn more about Fischer FarmsTweetable Quotes“If you want to do good in the world, you also need to actually be profitable and develop businesses that are intrinsically capitalistic. Using capital to grow and having a business which is purely based on charitable activity isn’t good enough if you want to make a difference.” (10:52) (Tristan)“When I was first doing solar projects, solar really wasn’t a great technology. Wind wasn’t really a great technology. It was expensive. It was intermittent. And, if you move on to twenty years after I started and you look in the UK now, the new wind energy systems that are coming onstream are the lowest cost electricity in the market, with the exception of solar.” (14:35) (Tristan)“The quality that you get from vertical farming is just better than the quality that you get from a field-grown crop. It’s tastier, has a longer shelf life, is more nutritious, it has a lower environmental footprint. There’s just a whole long list of reasons why vertical farm products are better than field-grown crops.” (18:35) (Tristan)“About twenty-five percent of all the world’s food production comes from land which uses aquifer water for irrigation. And, in about twenty years time, in most of the world where they have that type of system, that water will be gone or unusable.” (24:53) (Tristan)“I think that ultimately what you’re trying to do as a CEO is get the best out of your team because, ultimately, you need them. They are the specialists. They are the ones who understand the lighting, the water systems, the technology, and the growing.” (36:10) (Tristan)“I think that, as a CEO, creating that culture is very important. A culture of trust, of openness,and dare I say, of kindness, and love, and affection. We want people to be nice to each other, tobe good to each other, because if they are nice and good to each other, the more likely they areto cooperate and help each other out. And that’s what it’s all about really.” (41:48) (Tristan)Resources MentionedTristan’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristanfischer/? originalSubdomain=ukFischer Farms – https://www.fischerfarms.co.uk/Fischer Farms LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/fischer-farms-ltd/Books Mentioned:Natural Capitalism – https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Capitalism-Creating-Industrial-Revolution/dp/0316353000Connect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryTim Hade is Co-founder and COO of Scale Microgrids, an organization that builds and invests in the world’s most cutting-edge microgrid solutions. Today, Harry and Tim discuss the importance of making our energy infrastructure cleaner, more affordable, and more resilient. Tim speaks to the vulnerability of our power grids, the concept of decentralization, and the actions we must take to address the biggest problem facing humanity: climate change.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Tim Hade joins the show to recall his time serving in Air Force and his passion for solving the biggest problem humanity has ever faced: climate15:09 – The vulnerability of our power grids19:23 – Decentralization and Tim’s career in the energy industry25:16 – Challenges to overcome as a first-time founder and the impact Elon Musk has had on climate32:29 – Microgrids, explained and the work Tim and his team are doing at Scale Microgrids35:35 – How Tim got involved in vertical farming and the story behind collaborating with Fifth Season45:02 – What vertical farmers should consider when it comes to energy usage49:24 – Lithium-ion batteries and other innovations that are exciting to Tim52:58 – The tribal lands initiative and the genesis of the capital solutions business1:00:50 – Future opportunities for Scale Microgrids1:03:14 – A specific ask Tim has for his colleagues in the energy and vertical farming industries1:04:12 – Harry thanks Tim for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with him and learn more about Scale MicrogridsTweetable Quotes“Being in the military is what also got me very inspired to work on climate. It’s one of the things we don’t talk about a lot, but for the last twenty-five or thirty years, the Department of Defense has looked at climate change as the number one national security threat over time.” (10:40) (Tim)“We want to be a little piece of this global effort to try to solve the biggest problem humanity has ever faced, which is climate.” (14:55) (Tim)“If you’re going to build decentralized electric generation, solar and storage weren’t really at the maturity point from a technology standpoint that they needed to be at in order to do it in an economically viable way.” (22:50) (Tim)“The reality is that Elon Musk is the most important climate-tech founder of all-time. Tesla is the most important clean-tech company that’s ever come.” (29:56) (Tim)“You think about how people have always received electricity and it’s been from the grid. So, there’s a powerplant a few hundred miles away that generates electricity which comes through the wires and that’s what you use. And a microgrid is really taking that electricity generation and making it locally.” (32:52) (Tim)“I think vertical farming represents at least a partial solution to that problem. If we can figure out how to sustainably grow crops in a controlled environment, we don’t have to have a population that starves.” (38:39) (Tim)“If you’re gonna build a vertical farming system, energy needs to be a core competency of what you do.” (45:26) (Tim)Resources MentionedTim’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhade/Tim’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/timothyhadeScale Microgrids – https://www.scalemicrogrids.com/Scale Microgrids Twitter – https://twitter.com/ScaleMicrogridsBooks Mentioned:Lights Out – https://www.amazon.com/Lights-Out-Cyberattack-Unprepared-Surviving/dp/0553419986Connect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryDr. Isaac Berzin is the Founder and CTO at Vaxa Life, an organization that is developing sustainable algae-based feed and food ingredients. He was named one the 100 most influential people in politics, business, and science in 2008 by the Time Magazine for his work in sustainability and climate change. Today, Harry and Dr. Isaac discuss the biology of algae and its role in the food chain, his experience working with supplements at Qualitas Health, and the work he is doing at Vaxa Life to create alternative foods rich in vitamins, minerals and proteins.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:07 – Dr. Isaac Berzin joins the show to discuss his passion for sustainability, what brought him to Iceland and what he learned from his time at Qualitas Health15:19 – The origins of Vaxa Life19:55 – Unforeseen roadblocks and challenges faced along Dr. Isaac’s journey21:48 – The different strains of algae25:35 – Vaxa Life’s current product offering and their ideal customer30:01 – Dr. Isaac talks about Örlö, the world's most sustainable Omega-3 supplement32:55 – The similarities between Iceland and Israel37:04 – Future opportunities for Vaxa Life40:13 – A tough question Dr. Isaac has had to ask himself recently41:14 – Dr. Isaac’s experience as an adjunct professor at Reykjavik University and what keeps him motivated44:48 – Harry thanks Isaac for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with him and learn more about Vaxa LifeTweetable Quotes“One of the challenges of agriculture is inconsistent quality, especially with a crop that you harvest every day.” (11:30) (Dr. Isaac)“Remember how we started this journey. It’s a quest for sustainability and it’s a quest for superior user experience.” (15:43) (Dr. Isaac)“There are hundreds of strains in the nature of microalgae. Out of these, there are a handful of strains that are approved for human consumption.” (22:38) (Dr. Isaac)“Vaxa is a technology company that creates alternative foods rich in vitamins, minerals and proteins. We use algae as a vehicle, but we are not an algae company. And we do it in a sustainable way.” (25:45) (Dr. Isaac)“I have to tell you, the more time I spend with algae, the more I appreciate the complexity. And I understand why they are the baseline of the food chain because they are so versatile and so adaptable. It’s pretty fascinating.” (39:22) (Dr. Isaac)Resources MentionedIsaac’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaac-berzin-17386428/Vaxa Life – https://www.vaxa.life/Qualitas Health – https://iwilife.com/Visit Reykjavik, Iceland – https://visitreykjavik.is/Connect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryTom Adamczyk is the Founder & CEO at Planted Detroit, a beyond-organic farm that grows nutrient-packed greens and micros in a sustainable & controlled environment. Today, Harry and Tom discuss the origins of Planted Detroit, the revitalization of the city of Detroit, and Tom’s background in finance. Tom touches on the lessons he learned as a leader and CEO during the Covid-19 pandemic, the role mentors have played in his journey and why he believes it is critical for any business owner or investor to love the product.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Tom Adamczyk joins the show to discuss the revitalization of the city of Detroit, his 2000 Chevy Camaro, and where he got his ‘hustle mentality’ from13:02 – What Tom learned from his time in the financial sector16:42 – The impact that mentors have had on Tom’s career20:50 – Challenges Tom had to overcome throughout the Covid-19 pandemic24:24 – The origin story of Planted Detroit29:51 – Lessons learned as a leader and CEO33:30 – Planted Detroit’s ideal customer and offerings36:48 – Plans for the future of Planted Detroit39:24 – A tough question Tom has had to ask himself recently and a specific ask he has for his colleague in the vertical farming industry45:39 – Harry thanks Tom for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with him and learn more about Planted DetroitTweetable Quotes“Within business and as an entrepreneur, you have to be able to understand a little bit of everything. From the finance side to Sales & Marketing, to Operations, you’ve got to be technical and have some IT knowledge. There’s a lot of components of a business that you need to understand at least a little bit about each and every one of them.” (12:07) (Tom)“Hindsight, again, is 2020, but the team at Planted Detroit did a phenomenal job of being able to support one another, buckle down, keep the business operating as a critical infrastructure business. And we kept supplying food to our community all throughout it.” (23:28) (Tom)“I surrounded myself with people that had different experiences and backgrounds than me. And now, a lot of those people are still with me today. They are part of my leadership team at Planted Detroit. We brainstorm ideas and we learn from one another. They have backgrounds in Plant Science, Microbiology, Grocery, Marketing, as well as Construction and a lot of different aspects.” (28:06) (Tom)“It’s an amazing product. As an investor in a company, you’ve got to love the product. And that’s really grown organically into my life where people are constantly talking to me about salad.” (36:13) (Tom)“As an entrepreneur, there’s a million things that you need to do. You have to prioritize. I think it’s a component of what are you gonna do with your time? Again, I’m a humble person, so I’m not the type to say my time is more valuable than yours. It’s simply that time is valuable. It’s valuable to everybody. You can’t buy time. And so, I cherish that. I cherish my time. I think about what I’m gonna do with it. I think about my family. I think about my businesses. And I think about Planted Detroit specifically. It’s a huge time component and a huge investment, but it has so much opportunity.” (39:35) (Tom)Resources MentionedTom’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-adamczyk-33b29532/Planted Detroit – https://planteddetroit.com/Planted Detroit Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/planted.detroitPlanted Detroit Twitter – https://twitter.com/planteddetroitPlanted Detroit Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/planted.detroit/Planted Detroit LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/planted-detroit/Connect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryBrandy Keen is the Co-founder & Senior Technical Advisor at Surna, an organization that designs, engineers and manufactures application-specific environmental control and air sanitation systems for commercial, state, and provincial-regulated indoor cannabis cultivation facilities in the U.S. and Canada. Today, Harry and Brandy discuss the origins of Hydro Innovations and their acquisition by Surna, the powerful impact that controlled environment agriculture has on the world’s water supply, and what the future holds for the growth of the cannabis industry.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:06 – Brandy Keen joins the show to discuss the value she’s gotten from her experiences at conferences like the AgTech & Brazilian Harvest Conferences10:21 – The origin story of Hydro Innovations and the decision to focus on climate management16:06 – Engineering & Cannabis19:34 – A strategic acquisition: Enter Surna23:36 – The growth and maturity of the cannabis industry in recent years26:37 – Surna’s offerings and ideal clients29:30 – An increased interest in food production34:43 – How the proliferation of new technology is shifting the cannabis industry36:54 – Brandy speaks to her time with The Cannabis Sustainability Working Group39:02 – Lessons in food production via vertical farming and why indoor farms fail44:54 – Brandy speculates on the endless possibilities of controlled environment agriculture49:42 – A tough question Brandy has had to ask herself recently and something she’s changed her mind about recently51:38 – Brandy speculates on the future of the CEA and cannabis industries54:45 – Harry thanks Brandy for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with her and learn more about SurnaTweetable Quotes“There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ answer to climate systems, in particular, in cultivation facilities. Sometimes there are ten different ways you can do it and none of them are wrong.” (21:03) (Brandy)“It’s interesting because somebody asked me, ‘what brought us to pivot from cannabis to food?’ And, my answer was that there was no pivot. We’ve always served the indoor cultivation market. And food just didn’t exist at the scale that cannabis did. So it was really just a product of the existence of a market, not of us consciously making a decision to also do this other thing.” (28:22) (Brandy)“I think that in the food industry, folks are a lot more open to technologies that can drive down operating costs as opposed to in the cannabis industry where they can be a lot more wary of changing the way they do things.” (32:09) (Brandy)“Traditional agriculture uses somewhere between seventy and ninety percent of the world’s water resources. And, if you are cultivating in a completely controlled environment, your plant doesn’t consume water. It uses water as a delivery mechanism and then transpires that same moisture right back out into the space. So the ability to recapture and reuse water and reduce or eliminate runoff entirely in an indoor cultivation facility, that could be hugely impactful to water resources in the world, especially when you start going places where water is exceptionally scarce.” (45:27) (Brandy)Resources MentionedBrandy’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandy-keen-14651017b/Surna – https://surna.com/Surna Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/surnacultivationtech/Surna Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/surnaSurna LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/surna-cultivation-technologies/Surna YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGM4KwXBq4buUz6xDMcCRlwSurna Twitter – https://twitter.com/surnaofficialConnect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryNadun Hennayaka is the Founder and CEO at GAIA Project Australia, an organization with a vision to combine the most developed technologies to produce sustainable food & electricity to every human on this planet. Nadun has over twenty years of experience in engineering and technology and is well-versed in the global technology arena. Today, he and Harry discuss the current offerings of GAIA Project Australia, their recent partnership with NASA, and the ways in which Nadun is shining a light on hydroponics and vertical farming.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Nadun Hennayaka joins the show to discuss his educational background, the unpredictable weather of Melbourne, and the origins of GAIA Project15:32 – Nadun speaks to the eclectic projects he’s working on, from renewable energy to hydroponics17:52 – The current offerings of GAIA Project Australia20:26 – Partnering with NASA25:25 – Shining a light on hydroponics and vertical farming28:05 – The role that mentors played in Nadun’s career and how Nadun thinks about team building33:21 – Nadun’s goal for GAIA Project Australia and Nadun’s ‘Why’40:15 – What Nadun does to relax and unwind41:43 – A tough question Nadun has had to ask himself recently, something he’s changed his mind about recently, and what he’s most looking forward to48:36 – A specific ask Nadun has for his peers and colleagues in this space49:29 – Harry thanks Nadun for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with her and learn more about GAIA Project AustraliaTweetable Quotes“Happiness is a byproduct of service. So, doing something for the betterment of mankind truly was something I wanted to do.” (12:15) (Nadun)“As you know, hydroponics is not a fix for everything in the food sector. We can fix approximately fifteen to twenty percent of the food sector, maximum. But, if you can fix twenty percent, you only have eighty percent to fix. So the problem is lesser.” (25:10) (Nadun)“My original plan, two years ago, was truly to build a full turnkey supply, to go from everything from the channels, to the Hvac, to the automation. What I have learned is you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There’s someone who’s already invented certain components and are really great at it. And, if you have something great, why don’t we just collaborate with each other’s companies and come up with a single solution?” (33:36) (Nadun)“I’m glad I have chosen a path that I think there’s a potential for it [GAIA Project] to be something really great that can truly change or help mankind. For me, I want to make sure the world is a better place because I was here.” (39:38) (Nadun)Resources MentionedNadun’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadunhennayaka/?originalSubdomain=auGAIA Project Australia – https://gaiaprojectaustralia.com.au/GAIA Project Australia Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/gaiaprojectaustralia/GAIA Project Australia Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077527422613GAIA Project Australia LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/gaia-project-australia/Connect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryMagdalena Szawarska is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nangatech, an organization that designs the most effective nanogas technology to boost the productivity of farming. Today, Harry and Magdalena talk about the state of AgTech in her hometown of Warsaw, Poland, her background in psychology, and the numerous benefits that nanogas and nanobubble technology has on the agriculture industry. Magdalena discusses the low barrier to entry for farmers to utilize this technology and how it can even be used to benefit animal breeders.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:14 – Magdalena Szawarska joins the show to discuss her hometown of Warsaw, Poland and how her background in psychology has served her well in her career17:21 – Nangatech’s origin story20:42 – The scientific discovery of nanobubbles and the potential for this technology23:53 – Early adoption challenges28:01 – Agricultural benefits to nanobubble technology and the low barrier to entry for farmers31:16 – Presenting at AgTech NYC33:16 – Animal breeders and nanobubbles37:02 – The current state of the AgTech industry looks like in Poland39:35 – A tough question Magdelena has had to ask herself recently, something she’s changed her mind about recently, and a specific ask she has for her colleagues in the industry47:34 – Harry thanks Magdalena for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with her and learn more aboutTweetable Quotes“For me, the transition from science to business was a beautiful opportunity to see how those other things I was learning - and also, at the next level, I was teaching to my students - really work in real life.” (12:35) (Magdalena)“I guess, for me, this is extremely beautiful that there are unfinished projects. And there’s always a path we can unfold and there’s always ways in which we can improve.” (17:08) (Magdalena)“Starting with the benefits, we can increase the efficiency of crops up to twenty percent. The plants, in general, grow better because the oxygen is a biogenic gas, and when we deliver more oxygen to the plant-root systems, the plants grow faster and bigger.” (28:19) (Magdalena)“In general, we don’t face that many climate issues in Poland. The climate is moderate. There’s still plenty of land that can be used for agriculture. But I guess what’s more important for us, as I mentioned before, people from Warsaw and Poland in general who becoming really aware when it comes to ecology. There are lots of vegans in Poland. Vegans not only don’t eat animal products, but they also think about the environment a lot. So they want to buy local products and for them vertical farming is great because it means no chemistry, no pesticides, fresh product, no deliveries, no carbon dioxide emissions, and so on.” (38:33) (Magdalena)Resources MentionedMagdalena’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/magdalena-szawarska-059566180/?locale=en_USNangatech – https://www.nangatech.com/Nangatech YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nangatechNangatech LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/nangatech/Connect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryEric Lang is the President and co-founder of ZipGrow, an organization that educates, equips, and empowers local farmers to grow better food for their communities using their patented ZipGrow technology. Today, Harry and Eric talk about the importance of educating the masses on the overall AgTech industry, why local is better than organic, and what ZipGrow is doing to fix the broken food model. Eric expounds on one of the latest offerings from ZipGrow, ZipPods, and advice he has for aspiring farmers looking to break into the industry.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Eric Lang joins the show to discuss his traditional farming background, founding multiple companies, what he learned from early leadership roles, and his mindset as he entered the AgTech space13:37 – How Eric was able to apply his experience growing up on a dairy farm to AgTech18:03 – Eric’s approach to building a world-class team and fostering an impactful culture20:46 – Eric’s growth as a leader and the various skills necessary to become a successful farmer29:15 – ZipGrow’s current offerings and the markets they are serving36:29 – The inspiration behind ZipPods and branching out beyond leafy greens43:59 – Advice Eric would give to those looking to enter the industry and where Eric sees the biggest growth opportunity48:50 – Upcoming projects that ZipGrow is working on55:23 – A tough question Eric has had to ask himself recently, what keeps him motivated, and a specific ask he has for his colleagues in the industry1:03:38 – Harry thanks Eric for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with him and learn more about ZipGrowTweetable Quotes“One of the reasons I love being out in this area, even though we have maybe less of a choice of employees, when I find those other farm kids who are talented and skilled, they can and do do everything.” (17:28) (Eric)“I think the reality is coming from traditional Ag, as much as I do absolutely believe in the product, the industry, changing the world, and feeding people, I also come from the perspective that it has to have an ROI (return on investment). You can’t just hope and feel good about doing something great and not ever actually make money.” (22:16) (Eric)“We have everything from online hobby, to school and education, which is a big thing for us. We’re very committed to educating students and young people to make sure they understand and have an opportunity to get connected with the food they eat and understand where it comes from. But, of course, our bread and butter is still commercial farms.” (29:32) (Eric)“I still absolutely believe that proper indoor warehouse farms are the most economical way of growing indoors that you can get. But there are certain situations where that doesn’t necessarily make sense.” (38:47) (Eric)“A big focus for us is actually really getting into high-margin, high-volume crops, especially due to the nature of our actual equipment. It’s well suited to traceability. It’s completely clean and completely repeatable. We’re actually getting into strawberries, which we’ve been doing for six months and we’ve been killing it. But also, we’re getting into the next step, which is bio- pharmaceuticals and bio-cosmetics.” (40:27) (Eric)Resources MentionedEric’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-lang-2235ab128/?originalSubdomain=caZipGrow – https://zipgrow.com/ZipGrow Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ZipGrowTM/ZipGrow Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/zipgrowinc/ZipGrow YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/BrightagrotechZipGrow LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/zipgrow-inc/Connect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorverticalfarm.com/Horti-Gen Insights - https://www.hortigeninsights.com/Sponsor LinksCultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryDr. Christian Toma is the Founder and Chief Science Officer (CSO) at Kalera, a technology-driven vertical farming company that is delivering sustainable ultra-clean, nutrient-dense produce year-round. Kalera is the world’s largest operator of vertical hydroponic farms. Today, Harry and Dr. Christian discuss the nuances of shifting from CEO to CSO, the inspiration behind the HyCube, and how Kalera is expanding its International footprint through targeted acquisitions. Dr. Christian shares his passion for engineering and plant science, what goes into building a world-class team and how he has evolved as a leader. Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Dr. Christian Toma joins the show to discuss his vertical farming origin story, the inspiration behind the HyCube, and how Kalera has expanded and evolved over the years 15:23 – A passion for engineering, problem-solving and plant science 18:34 – The inspiration to launch Kalera and the work Dr. Christian and his team are doing 21:32 – Building a world-class, passionate team and how Dr. Christian has personally evolved as a leader 25:56 – The impact that mentors have had on Dr. Christian’s success 27:13 – The decision to go public and how the industry has matured recently 30:54 – Shifting from CEO to Chief Science Officer (CSO) 34:53 – Expanding Kalera’s International footprint and acquiring Endeavor 37:27 – A tough question Dr. Chistian has had to ask himself recently and upcoming projects that Kalera has in the pipeline 41:29 – What keeps Dr. Christian motivated 42:08 – Something Dr. Christian has changed his mind about recently and a specific ask he has for his colleagues 44:31 – Harry thanks Dr. Christian for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can go to connect with him and learn more about Kalera Tweetable Quotes“Actually, that’s the whole idea with vertical farming. It makes a lot of sense to do it when you can locate your farms very close to your customers and distribution centers for major customers.” (13:36) (Dr. Christian) “I was always very interested in healthy food, not only the value of it, but how to improve our daily nutritional intake - starting with my own family - and then realizing there was a real need for that. And, in talking to head chefs from all of these high-end hotels, we realized there was so much desire to improve the quality of their offerings.” (19:06) (Dr. Christian) “I think that no matter how much technology you use, if you don’t have talented growers, the quality suffers.” (22:34) (Dr. Christian) “Leadership is a people business. So, yes it was also a personal journey for me going from being focused on technology, technology management, and technology development to working with people. I learned a lot from them and hopefully they learned from me as well. But yeah it’s a transition. I would say being very crisp and focused on your message so you don’t put out confusion is super important.” (23:54) (Dr. Christian) “Singapore is becoming known as the ‘Food Valley,’ sort of like Silicon Valley, given their challenges of being a net importer for ninety percent of their food needs.” (35:56) (Dr. Christian) “Something I’ve changed my mind about is that at one point I thought that maybe vertical farming could solve all the issues in the world, but no. We have to understand that we have a place in the food system. And I don’t want to say we need to be humble, but we cannot chase projects that are too unrealistic because many of these projects end up using more resources and creating more problems than we want to solve. But continuing to innovate and expand our footprint in the food industry, but doing it in a way that makes sense and doesn’t use more resources than other existing approaches or more traditional approaches.” (42:13) (Dr. Christian) “We know that our product is good. We know that we’re growing the product in a way that, in many aspects, is more sustainable. We are addressing some real issues in the food chain. We really need to focus on the economics.” (44:16) (Dr. Christian) Guest ResourcesDr. Christian Toma’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctoma2000/ Kalera – https://kalera.com/ Kalera Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/KaleraProduce/ Kalera Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kaleraproduce/ Kalera Twitter – https://twitter.com/kaleraproduce Kalera LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/kalera/ Connect With UsVFP LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticalfarmingpodcastVFP Twitter - https://twitter.com/VerticalFarmPodVFP Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/VFP Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/VerticalFarmPodSubscribe to our newsletters!AgTech Digest - https://agtechdigest.comThe Indoor Farmer - https://www.indoorvertical

Episode SummaryDavid Ahmed is the Founder and CEO of HexaFarms, an Ag-Tech Startup that develops software for vertical-farming systems. They harvest data and leverage the potential of AI to identify optimal growth conditions for various crops grown in vertical farms. Today, Harry and David expound on the impact of Artificial Intelligence and other technologies on vertical farming, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and his amazing experience at Techstars Berlin. Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes David Ahmed to the show to discuss his experience living in multiple countries across the world, how he got involved in vertical farming and his passion for biology and computer science 14:57 – Square Roots, inspiration and moving to United Arab Emirates (UAE)  19:47 – A ‘Never Satisfied’ Mentality and Ahmed’s experience at Techstars Berlin  26:34 – David’s growth as a first-time CEO 29:55 – The ideal partner for HexaFarms 32:01 – Disrupting the norms and how David thinks about hiring and growing a world-class team 35:37 – David speculates on Artificial Intelligence, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and potentially starting his own farm43:36 – The biggest challenges posed to HexaFarms currently 45:55 – A tough question David has had to ask himself recently and the origin of the name, HexaFarms 51:47 – Harry thanks David for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and learn more about Hexafarms 52:49 – A specific ask David has for the audience Tweetable Quotes“Just being able to grow food indoors is not an achievement. What is an achievement is can you commercialize it.” (11:04) (David) “I have actually tried to look into myself and understand why I like plants. And, I think the answer is that I see in plants the same version of a computer algorithm. Plants are really fascinating, beautiful algorithms interacting with physical properties in nature…I think the meta-answer is that I like plants just because they’re like algorithms and it gives me a sense of understanding and appreciation of things around me. I see a divine design in plants, and the same with computers. Computers are manmade and plants are Godmade.” (12:10) (David) “On our website we say, ‘Forty percent cost reduction,’ and I mean it. We have been running a farm and doing experiments. When I started doing our work, we set up a lab and we really are trying to be as realistic as possible, measuring every single thing like, ‘How many minutes am I spending on my seedling? How many minutes am I spending on harvesting? How many times do I have to go down to the lab to check on stuff?’” (20:26) (David) “I do question the norms. I mean, c’mon, take traditional farming. Tilling the ground is the conventional wisdom, but it’s not necessarily true. If you go to India, literally at the end of the season the whole swath of land is just going to be tilled. And they think it gives air and airflow in the soil, but it’s not true.” (32:16) (David) “Our AI can also take into account the factors I mentioned: CO2, temperature, humidity, PH, more factors. It can easily co-relate those things. It can predict harvest time, using normal cameras.” (40:57) (David) “The name HexaFarms comes from hexagon, which is a mathematically super beautiful structure. So, if you look at honey bees and honeycombs, the structure is a hexagon. It has a bunch of other qualities, but one of them is that if you have to 3D pack something…it makes the most efficient structure.” (50:19) (David) Resources MentionedDavid’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-ahmed/HexaFarms – https://www.hexafarms.com/ HexaFarms Email – [email protected] HexaFarms LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/hexa-farms/ HexaFarms Twitter – https://twitter.com/HexaFarms/ HexaFarms Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/hexafarms/ Square Roots – https://www.squarerootsgrow.com/ Techstars Berlin – https://www.linkedin.com/company/techstars-berlin-accelerator/ Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryAllison Kopf is the Chief Growth Officer at iUNU, a software development company that’s building the future of the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry through their AI-driven LUNA platform that enables growers to develop a feedback loop between capturing data and managing processes to create precise, predictable production. Today, Harry welcomes Allison back to the show for Round 2 where they discuss the merging of Artemis and iUNU, her new role as Chief Growth Officer, and the many ways she’s helping to promote and empower female founders and entrepreneurs.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes Allison Kopf back to the show to talk about her experience at Indoor AgTech and her new position as Chief Growth Officer at iUNU 10:54 – The origin story of iUNU and feedback from growers on implementing this new system 20:13 – Where Allison is identifying new opportunities for growth 26:58 – The learning curve going from Artemis to iUNU and the amazing potential of AI and augmented reality  31:47 – Nokia’s Influencer Series on Food Waste 34:46 – Allison reflects on her time as Entrepreneur in Residence at NDRC 39:58 – How XFactor Ventures is helping female founders 41:58 – A tough question Allison has had to ask herself recently and best practices that have become critical to her success 46:41 – A specific ask Allison has for the audience 48:04 – Harry thanks Allison for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with her and learn more about iUNUTweetable Quotes“Honestly, it’s so hugely valuable with a system like this. Yes, it’s sometimes difficult to start up with a new system like this. Old technology has a learning curve to it, so you have to kind of get used to this, or maybe change your processes slightly to fit into the new system. But at the end of the day, what we’re focused on is driving real, tangible, calculable value for these growers. Our growers on average are seeing 3x returns on investment every year that they implement this system. And it’s continuous throughout the system because of how much value we can drive.” (14:29) (Allison) “One of the really neat things about this system is it really helps drive that comprehensive coverage component that is really tough to do.” (16:39) (Allison) “There’s a huge understanding process that has to happen because, especially for growers, they’re very very talented at doing these things. And so they’re used to seeing things that they’ve created. So, you take a tomato grower who’s used to doing crop registration and they’re great at it. The problem isn’t that they’re not good at it. The problem is that they can’t do it comprehensively for each plant.” (24:56) (Allison) “I think that the augmenting of what we’re doing in reality is amazing. We have a grower shortage. We all know this. We have to acknowledge this. But, if we can augment our growers and turn one grower into ten growers and think about it that way, that to me is almost magical. Except that it’s not magic, it’s science.” (28:17) (Allison) “The more I get into something, the more questions I end up having. It’s not the more answers you have, it’s the more questions. And that’s a good scenario because it prompts you to think about things in different ways.” (33:23) (Allison) “I’ve always been deeply curious. I just want to dig into things more, and more, and more, and learn because there’s so much to learn. If we ever want to have the belief that we can build something bigger and make a lasting impact on an industry or on the world, to me, part of that has to be this open mindset of learning.” (37:29) (Allison) Resources MentionedAllison’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonkopf/ iUNU – https://iunu.com/ iUNU Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lunapowered/ iUNU Twitter – https://twitter.com/LUNA_Powered XFactor Ventures – https://www.xfactor.ventures/ Asana – https://asana.com/ Eisenhower Matrix – https://asana.com/templates/eisenhower-matrix Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryHenry Gordon-Smith is the Founder of Agritecture, a global leader in urban agriculture consulting services. Today, Harry welcomes Henry back to the show for Round 2 where Henry talks all about his recent travel and nomadic lifestyle, the importance of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and the evolution of the overall AgTech industry. Henry expounds on the consolidation and hybridization he’s seen in vertical farming, Agritecture’s growth strategy and why he is so passionate, outspoken and steadfast about his belief in Controlled Environment Agriculture.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Netled - https://netled.fi/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes Henry Gordon-Smith back to the show to talk about travel, his current status as a nomad, and how he is scaling appropriately with his company, Agritecture11:05 – Pushing outside of your comfort zone13:22 – Agritecture’s growth strategy15:54 – Voltaics, mushrooms and regenerative agriculture18:57 – How Agritecture’s mix of clients has changed throughout the years22:29 – What has caused corporate clients and investors to pay more attention to vertical farming24:06 – Partnering with WayBeyond and ‘Greenwashing’ explained29:02 – Consolidation and Hybridization in the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry33:00 – The 1st Annual Generation Fest, AgTech Week & Edible Planet Summit39:21 – An unapologetic, outspoken advocate for CEA41:17 – Henry reflects back on what he’s built and speaks to who has inspired him along his journey45:01 – Opportunities for young folks to learn more about AgTech and vertica farming47:34 – A tough question Henry has had to ask himself recently54:13 – Harry thanks Henry for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and learn more about AgritectureTweetable Quotes“I like being out of my comfort zone. I think the history of this company is, pun intended, very organic. I started a blog and then people started asking for consulting. I never planned to be a consultant. I thought, ‘I’ll start this blog, and I’ll get some cool interviews from it, and I’ll learn some things.’ And here we are. The blog is the brand. I think I’ve gotten very used to, even before Agritecture, just adapting, and listening, and being agile. It’s a key part of who I am as an individual and sort of what we have at the company. But definitely I think that you should be outside your comfort zone if you want to innovate or grow.” (11:05) (Henry)“But also, our new software is a key aspect of our growth. We said, ‘Let’s go digital. If we go digital, we can help tens of thousands of new farmers, forget two hundred.’ That’s also part of the growth strategy. Of course, we translate that to the hiring needs we have, the kind of marketing we would need to do to get there, and the financial resources and returns on investment, and financial targets that we have. And that feeds into our growth plan.” (15:25) (Henry)“ESG investing obviously is also pushing an interest in building portfolios of vertical farming, greenhouses and climate smart tech. But I think it’s also the shocks in the system like the pandemic - which reminded us of the risk to our supply chain and the need to localize - and the war in Ukraine. Vertical farming, despite its challenges, has really benefited from these multiple shocks to the system and this sort of long term trend.” (23:13) (Henry)“Greenwashing is making a claim of sustainability or environmental impact, that is an exaggeration or inaccurate, and marketing that claim.” (26:55) (Henry)“Vertical farming is such an exciting technology and it’s a piece of the food system. When we hype it up and we separate it and we say, ‘This is the future of food, not a part of the future of food, or a part of a sustainable food system,’ we actually create a problem where we remove ourselves from opportunities to find synergies. And those synergies are really important to get to our objectives of year-round, high- quality, local, pesticide-free, more sustainable food supply in the face of a changing climate .” (31:10) (Henry)“In the end, the people I care about are the ones that are craving knowledge and have a passion like I do and are looking for a voice that encourages them.” (39:26) (Henry)Resources MentionedHenry’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/hgordonsmith/Henry’s Blogs/Websites – https://www.agritecture.com/ & https://www.technologywater.com/Agritecture Designer – https://www.agritecture.com/designerAgritecture Event Link – http://www.farming.nyc/Henry’s Instagram – @theagritect https://www.instagram.com/theagritect/Henry’s Twitter – @TheAgritect https://twitter.com/TheAgritectThought for Food – https://thoughtforfood.org/Generation Fest – https://thoughtforfood.org/generationfest/AgTech Week – https://www.agritecture.com/events-listing/2022/9/26/nyc-agtech-week-2022Edible Planet Summit – https://www.edibleplane

Episode SummaryKeenan Pinto is the founder and CEO of Nordetect, a real-time nutrient analysis product with cloud-connected hardware and accessible software that allows farmers to test their own soil samples and see results in real time. Today, Harry and Keenan talk about his vision for improving the equity, quality and footprint of food through technology, his entrepreneurial journey and why he chose to relocate to Denmark. They also touch on challenges Keenan faced as a first-time CEO, what indoor agriculture activity he is seeing in New York State, and what the future holds for Nordetect.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Netled - https://netled.fi/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes to the show, Keenan Pinto, who talks about his experience at the Indoor AgTech Summit in NYC, his decision to move to Copenhagen and the origin of his entrepreneurial journey12:17 – Any early interest in plant genetics and encountering an unknown frontier16:59 – Keenan’s AgTech origin story20:34 – Indoor AgTech and IKEA?!?25:31 – The inspiration to launch Nordetect28:35 – Improving the Equity, Quality, & Footprint of Food through Technology31:21 – Challenges as a first-time CEO35:30 – Nordetect’s services and offerings, reviews from early clients and the importance of educating farmers42:11 – A unique consulting opportunity45:02 – What activity Keenan is seeing in New York48:55 – Keenan speculates on the future of Nordetect52:52 – A tough question Keenan has had to ask himself recently56:55 – A specific ask Keenan has for the audience58:22 – Harry thanks Keenan for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and learn more about NordetectTweetable Quotes“I think that’s one of the interesting things about this is that because it’s a young, up-and- coming, and somewhat nascent industry, you start to see activity everywhere. And if you’re in a space where you’re looking at acquiring customers, then they’re [vertical farming conferences] popping up everywhere.” (08:23) (Keenan)“I think I’ve always been into biology through my education. In school, I was a little bit of a science nerd so science and math was a strong point. And, I think after choosing to do an engineering degree, biology stood out. So, I kinda wanted to do something that had not just this pure engineering, but had sort of the living world attached to it. I chose bio-tech because it has both elements and the plant genetics side of things was really during the choice of deciding to study a Masters.” (12:28) (Keenan)“What you see is, with Diagnostics, you see it when it’s on the market but a lot of these MedTech innovations, what we didn’t realize, took decades to come to market. So, the first couple of years was heavy technology development. And it was all about outdoors, and soil, and farming, and enabling farmers to use less fertilizer.” (28:13) (Keenan)“For us, as founders, the vision is really to be able to provide either a product or a service that can help de-risk cultivation for those farmers.” (30:06) (Keenan)“One of the VCs that I spoke with said, ‘We don’t invest in vertical farms, but we want to see the Tech providers that can take technology and help upgrade or upscale the smaller farms and bring them up to the level of these larger farms with a lot of investment. Companies that can do that will be the big ones of the next day.’” (43:16) (Keenan)“I think that coming out of the greenhouse and really moving outdoors is a future that I personally would like to see for the company and one that is not too far away.” (51:35) (Keenan)“That’s a big dilemma. That’s a big question. How do we want to grow the company? Do we want to consider this differential mindset of maybe reaching profitability faster and maybe growing a bit slower, or do you want to take in a lot of cash and then grow very aggressively?” (54:55) (Keenan)Resources MentionedKeenan’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/keenan510/?originalSubdomain=dkNordetect – https://nordetect.com/Nordetect LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/nordetect/Nordetect Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/nordetectNordetect Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/nordetect/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/Netled - https://netled.fi/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryEric Eisele is an entrepreneur, environmentalist and CEO of Growflux, a horticultural tech company offering automation and cloud technologies aimed at resource efficiency and yield expansion for indoor farms, and greenhouses. Today, Harry speaks to Eric about Eric’s Philly roots and his rich experience in design and architecture, wireless engineering and renewable energy. Eric expounds on circadian lighting, providing controls for lighting and his passion for fostering resource efficiency and environmental stewardship in agriculture.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Netled - https://netled.fi/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes to the show, Eric Eisele, who talks about his Philly roots, building lasers and computers at a young age, and the mentors who have been inspirations to Eric13:07 – An intense interest in photonics15:46 – Working with KieranTimberlake19:47 – From high-performing architecture to vertical farming23:44 – Circadian lighting, horticulture and GLASE Consortium27:20 – Mesh lighting and the hospitality industry35:13 – Providing controls for lighting as opposed to manufacturing lighting38:37 – How Eric has grown and evolved as a leader and CEO41:09 – Future trends and innovations Eric expects in the controls and lighting segment of vertical farming43:51 – A tough question Eric has had to ask himself recently45:09 – The importance of maintaining and fostering relationships49:36 – A specific ask Eric has for the audience51:50 – Harry thanks Eric for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with him and learn more about GrowfluxTweetable Quotes“One of the most fascinating things to me about that trajectory - moving from architecture of high-performing buildings to this space - is I’ve been able to see how this industry is maturing and borrowing practices and concepts from the commercial building space.” (20:35) (Eric)“At GrowFlux, we haven’t been doing a lot of sensor work commercially lately. Internally we use a lot of sensors. We do a lot of sensing with our own technology. We’ve seen how a building envelope can drive thermogradients within a cultivation space; we’re very familiar with that. And it’s something that there’s really not enough people that are looking at it and accounting for it in the design process.” (23:12) (Eric)“We’ve always known that light is a very significant driver for our own biological clocks. But in 2008, researchers discovered some cells inside the eye that are called Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). What these cells do is they don’t create images, they detect light. And they detect specific wavelengths of light that are centered on blue. And what that does is it triggers a hormonal response that regulates the release of serotonin and melatonin that ultimately determine our biological clock throughout the day.” (25:22) (Eric)“What we’re doing is we’re supporting a lot of these initiatives by providing very robust API- addressable controls down to every light.” (34:49) (Eric)“For me, who I look to for inspiration is really other founders because it is a really unique circumstance when your passion project for many years is your livelihood and is your entire existence really.” (40:10) (Eric)“Ultimately, this industry has so much growth ahead of it. And, I really feel, in the coming years and decades, that we are going to have to hyperscale and we have to learn from other industries.” (50:40) (Eric)Resources MentionedEric’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericeiseleGrowflux – https://growflux.com/Growflux LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/growflux/KieranTimberlake – https://kierantimberlake.com/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/Netled - https://netled.fi/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryFounder and CEO of CityCrop, Christos Raftogiannis, joins the show to share his passion for agriculture, how the Indoor AgTech industry has evolved in Greece, and the challenge of assembling a team to take on the complexities of vertical farming. Today, Harry and Christos engage in a discussion on what inspired Christos to launch CityCrop, how Christos has grown as a founder and the work CityCrop is doing to modernize and democratize farming as key to a healthier and greener living.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes to the show, Christos Raftogiannis, who talks about his passion for agriculture and how he got involved in hydroponics and vertical farming14:09 – The inspiration to launch CityCrop and customer feedback on early prototypes18:52 – How Christos approaches building a team to tackle a myriad of problems20:22 – How Christos has grown as a founder and leader and how he decides what products CityCrop offers24:29 – Challenges of growing tobacco indoors25:50 – Christos reflects on his experience with The Hellenic Initiative and The Venture Impact Awards27:28 – The evolution of indoor farming in Greece29:57 – Christos’ plans for expansion33:20 – The importance of educating younger generations on the possibilities of vertical farming37:26 – What motivates and drives Christos39:28 – A specific ask Christos has for the audience41:39 – Harry thanks Christos for joining the show and lets listeners know wher they can connect with him and learn more about CityCropTweetable Quotes“In Greece, the universities don’t encourage the entrepreneurial mindset in their students. To study something and then go out alone to work on something is not viewed as a good thing.” (11:46) (Christos)“I think I’ve grown through my mistakes because it was my first venture where I didn’t know a lot about manufacturing, software, field work, how you can combine everything. I think I learned a lot [as a new founder].” (20:42) (Christos)“In every competition with a lot of different companies in different sectors...you start realizing that you’re creating something that has value and that you’ve done something right this time.” (26:53) (Christos)“When you are young you learn and you accept things easier than an older person.” (33:55) (Christos)“One of the biggest things [that keeps me motivated] is the climate crisis. We need to keep growing and grow closer to our cities. I strongly believe that our technology can help people to start growing closer to their homes. This is the main thing that pushes us to work harder and harder every day.” (37:52) (Christos)Resources MentionedChristos’ Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisraftogiannis/?originalSubdomain=grCityCrop – https://www.citycrop.io/CityCrop Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/citycropCityCrop Twitter – https://twitter.com/citycropCityCrop Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/citycrop/CityCrop LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/citycrop/CityCrop YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_wECFeSwvQRhxTeag2ndbAThe Hellenic Initiative – https://www.thehellenicinitiative.org/The Venture Impact Awards – https://ventureimpactaward.com/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryFounder and Chief Content Director of From Farms to Incubators, Amy Wu joins the show today to share her mission of highlighting women in food, farming, and farmtech, especially women of color. Amy is an entrepreneur, storyteller, and award-winning writer for the women’s ag and agtech movement. Today, Amy speaks to the work she’s doing to tell the stories of women innovators and leaders in agrifoodtech. Amy reflects on her time as an investigative journalist, breaks down current issues such as food security, inflation and supply chain, and speaks to the power of representation.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes to the show, Amy Wu, who shares the story of her journey and what led her to a path of writing about women innovators in AgTech12:29 – Reflecting on her time as an investigative journalist and how Amy got involved in AgTech18:32 – Covid, food security, inflation and supply chain20:11 – A passion for making a difference and the inspiration to make a documentary24:22 – Why there aren’t more women in AgTech29:43 – Harry and Amy speak to what they learned during Indoor AgTech NYC33:24 – The power of representation and telling untold stories38:59 – What goes into creating a documentary41:54 – Amy expounds on the work she’s doing at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub43:54 – Making food and farming sexy48:19 – Three asks Amy has for the audience and where listeners can learn more about Farms to IncubatorsTweetable Quotes“I felt strongly about giving voice to communities and to stories that just were not told. And the reason they’re not told, I find often, is because maybe the mass media isn’t interested in them immediately or it’s just too esoteric.” (13:28) (Amy)“A lot of them were in their twenties and early thirties at the time and these smart women were from science, technology, engineering and math and were passionate about tackling issues related to climate and sustainability. And also, some of them were frustrated with working at companies where their ideas were just not being allowed to get out there, so they just thought, ‘Why don’t I hang my own shingle?’ So, I just thought it was a really good time to introduce this. I didn’t know what it would become.” (22:06) (Amy)“The thirty women in my book are a community of their own, and each one of them has said, ‘I want to connect with the other women.’ And from there, it kind of snowballs, right? So, I strongly believe that networking and community is critical.” (26:08) (Amy)“I think it’s so critical - what you said about that love and joy and passion - to be connected to the land. And also just seeing something that you produced. People put a lot of hard work into their gardens.” (33:03) (Amy) “The work at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub truly aligns with my mission and vision to use agriculture as a platform to make a positive difference in society.” (42:16) (Amy)“Absolutely that’s the message that I’m trying to get across that food and farming can be sexy.” (44:45) (Amy)Resources MentionedAmy’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/amywu128/Amy’s Email – [email protected] Farms to Incubators – https://www.farmstoincubators.com/From Farms to Incubators Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/farmstoincubators/From Farms to Incubators Twitter – https://twitter.com/FarmToIncubatorFrom Farms to Incubators Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/FarmstoIncubators/From Farms to Incubators Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/user86133226Books Mentioned:From Farms to Incubators – From Farms to Incubators: Women Innovators Revolutionizing How Our Food Is GrownSponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryCo-Founder at Ekonoke, Inés Sagrario, joins the show to share her eclectic background, including her time at The Cluster Competitiveness Group, and the work she’s currently doing at Ekonoke, a sustainable indoor farming start-up. Ekonoke develops knowledge and technology to produce great quality hops year-round with significantly lower water and carbon footprint. Today, Harry and Inés talk about their shared experience as startup entrepreneurs, the power of strategic analysis, and how the indoor AgTech industry is evolving. Inés shares the growth cycle of hops, her passion for sustainability, and her special relationship with her co-founder, Ana.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes to the show, Inés Sagrario, who talks about the Rioja wine region of Spain and her experience living in ten different countries15:54 – A passion for sustainability17:33 – Inés reflects on her time working at The Cluster Competitiveness Group, and the power of strategic analysis20:26 – The accidental entrepreneur and the genesis of Ekonoke27:06 – The impact the global pandemic had on Ekonoke30:59 – Inés speaks to her relationship with her co-founder (and cousin) Ana33:00 – One final pivot to growing hops indoors42:44 – The growth cycle of hops44:08 – A touch question Inés has had to ask herself recently48:23 – Future endeavors for Ekonoke52:01 – Harry thanks Inés for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with Ines and learn more about EkonokeTweetable Quotes“Competitiveness, for me, was the school of my life. I had brilliant bosses. The Founder and the other founder partner at that time were amazing in terms of strategic analysis. Everything I know about strategic analysis I learned from them.” (18:33) (Inés)“So, when we started with the vertical gardens at the restaurants, we were growing in a greenhouse with the ZipGrow Towers. We’d grow the leafy greens or the herbs to be ready for harvest and then we would take them in the ZipGrow Tower and set them up at the in-store or in-restaurant garden. The truth is, I think we were a bit too advanced for the market in Spain at that time, and they weren’t ready to pay a premium for that. So, they used it more as a Marketing thing for decoration.” (22:54) (Inés)“From March 2020 onwards, over the next three months, we managed to secure different business angels that we’d been talking to. Everything we’d been explaining about how it’s important to redefine the food system, and stop having all this food travel thousands of kilometers, but rather have the knowledge and the technology travel instead, it just made sense.” (27:52) (Inés)“Our plan right now is to grow globally. We want to handle a really large market. And, even though right now we’re a local startup in Madrid, we want to make sure that we establish all the controls, procedures, and processes from the beginning that will allow us to grow quickly and to scale at the level that we aim at scaling.” (32:37) (Inés)“Basically what we want to bring is climate resiliency to a crop [hops] that will eventually disappear if we don’t do anything about it.” (41:56) (Inés)Resources MentionedInés’ Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/inessagrario/?originalSubdomain=esRioja Wine Region of Spain – https://winetourismspain.com/wine-regions/rioja/Ekonoke – https://www.ekonoke.com/Ekonoke LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/ekonoke/Ekonoke Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ekonoke_/Ekonoke Twitter – https://twitter.com/ekonoke_Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryFounder and CEO of VegBed, Albert Lin joins the show today to share the work he’s doing to create a better and easier way to use growing medium for the hydroponic community. Albert speaks to his experience as an early stage startup operations expert, the entrepreneurial mindset he has cultivated and the biggest piece of advice he would give to founders.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes back Founder of Vegbed, Albert Lin, to share his vertical farming origin story14:40 – A values-based founder and why Agriculture is such a passion for Albert18:38 – Going All-In: Albert’s entrepreneurial mindset23:17 – The biggest piece of advice Albert would give to founders26:37 – The origin story of VegBed, the connection to rockwool, and what consumers VegBed targets33:32 – Other areas of vertical farming Albert is looking to expand VegBed and the biggest opportunity Albert sees38:34 – Mentors who have been critical to Albert’s success39:57 – A tough question Albert has had to ask himself recently43:13 – An ask Albert has for the audience43:56 – Harry thanks Albert for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can follow VegBedTweetable Quotes“A lot of the issues I think we’re having with health in the U.S. and society and global warming can be addressed in a multifaceted way through Agriculture.” (15:03) (Albert)“For me, I felt like it would be a disservice to [my parents], who came to this country for a better life for my sister and myself, just to do a nine-to-five job.” (19:27) (Albert)“One of the failures that happens I think with most entrepreneurs is they think if they build it people will come. And that’s the number one mistake. They spend all this time and money. They build this thing; they create this product. And then nobody wants it, or downloads it, or buys it.” (23:41) (Albert)“So bamboo itself, when you look at the growth chart, it grows exponentially faster as time grows on. I think within the first month it grows six to twelve inches a day and then after one month it starts growing more than a foot a day.” (32:27) (Albert)“Ninety-eight percent of the lettuce that’s grown in the U.S. is grown in California or Arizona. And, when you think of it, does it really have to be that way?” (42:28) (Albert)Resources MentionedAlbert’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertlin17/Albert’s Email – [email protected] – https://www.vegbed.com/Vegbed Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/vegbed/Vegbed YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUntJYZh_PPof2csWmqXEdw/featuredVegbed Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/vegbedGreen Tech – https://www.greentech.nl/Link Tree – https://linktr.ee/Books Mentioned:The Mom Test – https://www.momtestbook.com/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryFounder and CEO of HRVSTS, Ali Daniali joins the show today to share his engineering background, the origin story of HRVSTS and the importance of supporting and promoting small farming both domestically and abroad. Today, Harry and Ali discuss decentralizing the food distribution network, some big wins HRVSTS was able to achieve recently and advice Ali would give to first-time farmers.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes back Founder and CEO of HRVSTS, Ali Daniali, to discuss what he got out of the latest Indoor AgTech Conference in NYC 12:27 – Ali’s background prior to HRVSTS and taking an engineering approach to AgTech 21:37 – The idea behind the ‘Sold Before You Sell It’ mantra23:02 – Decentralizing food distribution and challenges Ali faced 29:46 – Indoor farming as a service and the variety of services available 35:21 – Ali recalls latest wins from HRVSTS 40:30 – Advice Ali would give to first-time farmers 43:26 – A tough question Ali has had to ask himself recently 46:19 – Harry thanks Ali for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can follow HRVSTS 47:02 – An ask Ali has for the audience Tweetable Quotes“Scale becomes this thing where everybody needs to scale up. And, because of that, we leave behind a lot of conversations about small and medium-sized growers. We leave behind conversations about food service and other ways of distribution of food.” (10:40) (Ali)“What I had learned from those interviews was that the grower who had a relationship with a buyer and could pre-sell their crop - two crops ahead of time, all their crops ahead of time - they were the ones who were being successful in their process.” (16:31) (Ali) “That model is very susceptible to breaking and it’s not very resilient. We have created these very efficient distribution models that can even come over to the next one when there’s a problem. You have to bury food because you can’t move it from one distribution network to the other. And, with crypto and all these other types of technologies and the conversation about decentralization, the question was,’Can we decentralize our food distribution as well?’” (23:02) (Ali) “I think this is the time right now to bring small farming back to the U.S. and across the world. We lost them because of WWII. Big Ag became this monster to be able to feed and commoditize agriculture. I think we need to fix that. And the way you do that is with indoor growing.” (38:02) (Ali) “There’s so much produce being eaten in the U.S. and abroad that the pie is huge. We just gotta get in the door with these buyers and tell them, ‘You can have a bespoked order, exactly to your specifications using this indoor farm as a service and have the highest quality, locally grown, with no pesticides.” (42:36) (Ali) Resources MentionedHRVSTS – https://hrvsts.com/ HRVSTS Twitter – https://twitter.com/hrvsts Ali’s Email – [email protected] Ali’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alidaniali/ Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryFounder and CEO of Contain and recurring guest, Nicola Kerslake joins the show today to discuss three exciting and innovative areas of AgTech she and her team at Contain are focusing on currently. Nicola touches on a new microlearning platform they’ve launched, the importance of diversifying revenue streams and what trends she’s noticing in the overall AgTech industry.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Indoor AgTech NYCKey Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes back Founder and CEO of Contain, Nicola Kerslake, to discuss innovative and exciting new areas of focus for Contain13:02 – Rooted, a microlearning platform18:46 – Trends Nicola has observed about the AgTech industry recently21:50 – Crop diversity and shifting demands23:45 – Contain’s growth, growth trajectory and future challenges Nicola anticipates28:13 – The importance of diversifying revenue streams31:48 – Solar energy, cryptocurrency and speculating on the future of capital37:57 – Nicola’s involvement in Venture Capital and lessons she’s learned40:40 – An ask Nicola has for the audience42:07 – Harry thanks Nicola for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can follow Nicola, Contain, Equipped and RootedTweetable Quotes“So, our expectation was that we would do a lot of container farms. What we found is that anything that helps to offset labor is really popular. So any kind of seeding or automatic harvesting equipment, anything along those lines goes very quickly.” (10:50) (Nicola)“We’ll never be satisfied with where we’re at. We’re always looking three steps down the road.” (12:18) (Nicola)“One big trend on the vendor side is European vendors wanting to do more in the U.S. The other is we do, and always have had inquiries from all over the world and so we do, on occasion, look at European deals and some parts of Asia as well. The challenge is how do we make sure that we can give them the same level of service that we could to a U.S. farmer.” (21:25) (Nicola)“The interesting thing that we’re seeing though is that, even though the economy is obviously not doing great, AgTech and agriculture as a whole has never been hotter. Arguably, this is a really good time to actually start something because you have a shot at getting contracts that you probably wouldn’t have gotten three or four years ago.” (27:34) (Nicola)“Any successful industry has an ecosystem around it. Our guiding principle is always, ‘How are we of service to the industry?’” (31:03) (Nicola)“That’s something that we think about. Do you have to be the largest company to be successful?” (37:19) (Nicola)Resources MentionedContain – https://contain.ag/Contain Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/containag/Contain Twitter – https://twitter.com/containagContain LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/contain/Contain’s Email – [email protected] – https://equipped.farm/Rooted – https://rooted.global/Nicola’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolakerslake/Nicola’s Website – https://www.agshowcase.com/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryFounder and CEO of Vertical Future, Jamie Burrows is a passionate leader with extensive knowledge of the indoor AgTech space. Vertical Future is the world’s leading vertical farming technology and research company, providing revolutionary products and services that enable people and nature to thrive. Today, Harry and Jamie talk about Jamie’s passion for health, life sciences, and addressing critical issues like climate change, food inequalities and population health. Jamie expounds on his leadership style, the focus and mission of Vertical Future, and key milestones he’s reached along the journey.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Indoor AgTech NYCKey Takeaways07:14 – Harry welcomes Founder and CEO of Vertical Future, Jamie Burrows, to discuss culture shock, his eclectic background, and his experience serving in the Air Force14:17 – Jamie’s passion for health and life sciences and how he got involved in vertical farming16:57 – Leadership styles and building an effective team as a first time CEO24:45 – Key milestones of Jamie’s vertical farming journey30:57 – The importance of developing in-house tech stack37:31 – Jamie’s specific focus on the UK47:19 – A tough question Jamie has had to ask himself recently and50:53 – What keeps Jamie motivated and excited about the future53:31 – Harry thanks Jamie for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can follow Jamie and Vertical FutureTweetable Quotes“Looking back seven to ten years, I’d had a tremendous amount of exposure to what a good leader is and what a bad leader is at the Air Force Academy. I saw many examples and was mentored personally by Colonels.” (17:31) (Jamie)“The unit economics of vertical farming demand that it’s all about space and scale. And, if you want to compete then you need big farms and you need a lot of capital.” (20:37) (Jamie)“I think that on our side of the equation, you’ve got the growers over here and the tech providers over here. You have a lot of companies that are building street components. So it might just be lights and great lighting companies. But then you’ve got what I would call systems integrators, where they’ll piecemeal tech from different people, position it as a system of their own, and sell it.” (31:12) (Jamie)“I think people underappreciate that, even in the UK, we still need to spend a helluva lot of money on building out vertical farming.” (40:06) (Jamie)“From a personal standpoint, I do really believe in the fact that what we are doing is addressing very important topics and will continue to.” (51:16) (Jamie)Resources MentionedVertical Future – https://verticalfuture.com/Jamie’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-burrows-12890817/?originalSubdomain=ukVertical Future Email – [email protected] Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryFounder and CEO of KETOS, Meena Sankaran joins the show to discuss her passion for leveraging disruptive technologies to make an impact as a social entrepreneur. KETOS is a vertically integrated water intelligence platform that is on a mission to transform how water operators measure, manage, and forecast water quality. Today, Harry and Meena talk about Meena’s inspirational immigration story, launching W.IN.S (Women INner Strength), and her passion for doing good and solving existential problems.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Indoor AgTech NYCKey Takeaways07:14 – Harry welcomes Founder and CEO of KETOS, Meena Sankaran, to discuss where she calls home, her experience with culture shock, and her hunger and fire to do better17:19 – Meena reflects on her background in electrical engineering and the culture of entrepreneurism25:26 – The concept of ‘Help and Let Help Live’30:18 – The inspiration to launch Women INner Strength (W.IN.S)33:49 – The origin story of KETOS and understanding water intelligence48:26 – Challenges and wins for Meena and KETOS57:14 – How Meena has grown as a leader and entrepreneur59:02 – Harry thanks Meena for joining the show and Meena makes a specific ask of the audienceTweetable Quotes“I think for me [what called me to the States was] the drive to make my parents’ lives better, the hunger within me to collectively make the world a better place for India.” (11:32) (Meena)“I would say the ideation process, to me, is the most intriguing part, because people have millions of ideas. An idea isn’t worth a penny unless you can execute on it.” (21:12) (Meena)“I truly believe that women are such strong souls and you have so much inner strength that is untapped. And, if we are able to uplift each other, we would be unstoppable.” (32:19) (Meena)“What I was doing was really thinking through my mind of what is it that I want to do? Which area do I really want to dive in? And that was getting narrower and narrower. And, it actually came back to my childhood because I looked at what areas are going to make an impact and I thought it had to be in the space of water, air or food. It had to be that important of a challenge in terms of serving the community and solving a real challenge that’s affecting the planet.” (34:25) (Meena)“I believe that regardless of the outcome of where your startup ends up, it doesn’t matter, because what your experience and what your journey has been is so unique to you that no other job could have ever given you that experience.” (38:34) (Meena)“It’s a humbling experience every step of the way, what you think you know versus what you think you don’t know. You don’t even know what you don’t know. That has been a humbling experience.” (57:26) (Meena)Resources MentionedKETOS – https://ketos.co/Meena’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenas/Meena’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/Meena_SankaranW.IN.S (Women INner Strength) Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/1580822015497755/Visalur, India – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisalurSponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryCEO of Indoor Ag-Con, Brian Sullivan joins the show to share his years of experience in event management and what led him to acquire Indoor Ag-Con, the premier trade show & conference for indoor vertical farming & controlled environment agriculture. Today, Harry and Brian discuss the highs and lows of the events industry, the resilience Brian showed throughout the course of the pandemic, and the importance Brian places on problem-solving and fostering a familial-type culture among his team.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Indoor AgTech NYCKey Takeaways07:14 – Harry welcomes CEO of Indoor Ag-Con, Brian Sullivan, to discuss their shared love of New York City, how Brian got into the events industry and his path to entrepreneurship18:11 – Brian reflects on two major snags he’s experienced while putting on trade shows21:44 – Acquiring Indoor Ag-Con and Brian’s vertical farming origin story25:17 – What Brian looks for in an event before deciding to acquire it33:34 – Gathering input on how to grow, change, and make it better36:44 – Brian speaks to some of his favorite moments from event management43:36 – Brian shares what he learned about resilience and leadership throughout Covid48:29 – Where Brian learned his resilience and why fostering familial support is so important52:33 – Harry thanks Brian for joining the show and Brian makes a specific ask of the audienceTweetable Quotes“I fell in love with the [events] industry. It really is Lights, Camera, Action. It’s buildup and it’s creating something again and again. There’s always a twist. There’s always excitement. And business is transacted there.” (12:49) (Brian)“Connors Exhibition Group was the company I worked for. And the show I was brought onto was the National Hardware Show. It was actually the third-largest trade show in North America. I got a lot of experience but then I left honestly because it was very corporate. My wife was working in the same industry which is how we met. And we saw an opportunity to try to start a little company, and it worked.” (13:55) (Brian)“For me, it’s fun. I can’t see myself ever doing anything else. It gets in your blood and it’s a lot of fun producing events.” (21:03) (Brian)“If you’re building a farm, in my mind, where do you start? Do you start at building it or do you start on who your customer is going to be? Are you selling it to a restaurant? Are you going direct-to-consumer? Are you going to grocers?” (32:53) (Brian)“There are two things I say to our teams at times. ‘If we run into a problem, it’s not the problem. It’s how you resolve it.’ And I also tell them, ‘The road to success is not a superhighway. It’s a goat path.’” (45:22) (Brian)“I believe the best learning moments are when things go wrong.” (47:57) (Brian)Resources MentionedIndoor Ag-Con – https://indoor.ag/Brian’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-sullivan-13b3651a/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryCEO and Founder of VoltServer, Stephen Eaves joins the show to share over twenty years of experience in the energy industry and his passion for doing things that have never been done before. Stephen is an expert in battery management, power electronics and energy infrastructure and has fifteen patents issued or pending related to energy storage and power conversion. Today, Harry and Stephen talk about the origin story of VoltServer and the technology behind digital electricity. Stephen shares his thoughts on areas where digital electricity can benefit vertical farming, what the future holds for both industries and what the future holds for high-tech power distribution.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Indoor AgTech NYCKey Takeaways07:14 – Harry welcomes CEO and Founder of VoltServer, Stephen Eaves, to talk about his entrepreneurial background and his passion for doing things that have never been done before14:40 – Edison, Tesla, and Eaves19:40 – Mentors who inspired and helped Stephen along his journey20:48 – Digital electricity and the origin story of VoltServer25:05 – Consumer and industry response30:04 – How Stephen got involved in vertical farming33:58 – Other areas of vertical farming that VoltServer can benefit38:20 – The reaction of the electricians’ community and what’s on the horizon for VoltServer and digital electricity technology43:48 – Opportunities Stephen sees in the vertical farming and indoor AgTech space48:06 – A tough question Stephen has had to ask himself recently and an ask Stephen has for the audience51:26 – What has Stephen excited about the future of VoltServer52:23 – Harry thanks Stephen for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can learn more about VoltServerTweetable Quotes“I’ve always had a passion or an obsession to do things that have never been done before - things that are uniquely different.” (12:54) (Stephen)“For me it’s just a lot of hard work. I wouldn’t say I’m in the category of what they call the flash of genius or flash of inspiration. It’s mainly about looking at problems and finding an un-thought of way to solve a problem that hasn’t been thought of before.” (17:26) (Stephen)“There’s nothing like digital electricity. There’s nothing out there where you can touch wires and it knows the difference between you and a vacuum cleaner or something like that.” (21:37) (Stephen)“We see this type of electricity being the next thing in electricity that will displace full AC infrastructure in buildings and probably cities. But it will take a while before it goes to long- distance transmission and things like that.” (29:48) (Stephen)“The sort of the black eye in vertical farming is the electricity use. And, if electricity is created using carbon-based sources, that’s not good. I think the big movement is going to be as we move towards carbon-free energy sources.” (45:06) (Stephen)Resources MentionedVoltServer – https://voltserver.com/VoltServer YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzpGyIlBXwD3l8PNRjFj4sw/featuredVoltServer Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/voltserver_indoor_ag/VoltServer LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/voltserver-inc-/Stephen’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-eaves-47869a33/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryCo-Founder & CEO of Agrilution, Max Loessl has a vision of bringing the revolutionary concept of vertical farming to every home to allow everyone to grow their own nutritious plants. Today, Harry and Max discuss the work Max and his co-founder have done to develop a viable Personal Vertical Farming System. Max shares what inspired his affinity for entrepreneurship and vertical farming, discusses the origins of Thought for Food, and expounds Agrilution’s offerings, including the Plantcube.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Indoor AgTech NYCKey Takeaways04:27 – Harry welcomes Co-Founder & CEO of Agrilution, Max Loessl, to discuss his vertical farming origin story and the inspiration he got from the book, The Vertical Farm, and 13:14 – Lessons learned in the early years of vertical farming and how Max’s entrepreneurial spirit arose 17:56 – Failing Forward 20:44 – How Thought for Food came about 25:22 – Agrilution’s offerings and target market 27:55 – Challenges with hardware, software and controlling biology 31:37 – How Max has grown as a leader and why culture and communication are both critical 33:47 – Max speaks to the approach he takes in serving other markets and positive feedback on Agrilution appliances 42:35 – A tough question Max has asked himself recently and networking in the vertical farming industry 45:58 – What excites Max most about the future of Agrilution and vertical farming 47:00 – Harry thanks Max for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can learn more about Agrilution Tweetable Quotes“I was just so inspired, on the one side, drawing that grim reality that we’re living in and, on the other side, having that potential vision of the future of doing agriculture more in-line with our planetary boundaries.” (08:46) (Max) “It [vertical farming] really is a multi-billion dollar industry, but it’s also nowhere close to the potential of where it could one day be, I think. We’re still in the very early days.” (14:58) (Max) “We’ve basically invented this personal vertical farming category. It’s a home appliance in the size of a dishwasher with two layers. You can grow up to nine different plants per layers, so eighteen different plants in the entire product. And it takes care of the entire growing process, from seed to harvest.” (25:38) (Max) “One thing to highlight is how critically important culture is and hiring the right people. The other thing is communication. Everything succeeds or fails with the right communication and setting up the right processes for communication.” (32:08) (Max) Resources MentionedAgrilution Website – https://www.agrilution.com/ Agrilution LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/agrilution/ Agrilution Twitter – https://twitter.com/agrilution Agrilution Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.de/agrilution/_created/ Agrilution Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/agrilution/ Agrilution Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/agrilution/ Max’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/loessl/?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2F&originalSubdomain=de Vertical Farming Episode feat. Max’s mother, Christine Zimmermann-Loessl – https://verticalfarmingpodcast.com/episode/s4e51-christine-zimmermann-loessl-advancing-sustainability-and-the-vertical-farming-movement Thought For Food – https://thoughtforfood.org/ Books Mentioned: The Vertical Farm – https://www.amazon.com/Vertical-Farm-Feeding-World-Century/dp/0312610696 Abundance – https://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/1451614217Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryCEO of Netled, Niko Kivioja spent the first part of his career in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) as a grower and has spent the last decade in high-tech closed-environment and vertical farming technology development. Today, Harry and Niko discuss how the vertical farming industry is growing and what opportunities exist for competitors within the industry to share technological advances to benefit all companies. Niko shares some exciting new projects and partnerships, including one with a Calgary-based wholesale supplier to bring Netled’s Vera vertical farming technology to the North American market.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways04:27 – Harry welcomes CEO of Netled, Niko Kivioja, to talk about the proprietary Vera vertical farming platform he’s been managing and the research that goes into shifting focus to new produce such as strawberries14:34 – Providing holistic solutions and building a world-class vertical farming team18:33 – Advancements and specialization of technology in vertical farming and sharing resources so all companies in the industry benefit23:01 – Niko talks about the latest initiative between Netled and Calgary-based Rambridge Wholesale Supply to bring Vera vertical farming technology to the North American market33:15 – What excites Niko most about future innovations in the vertical farming industry35:54 – Niko shares a major production project he’s currently working on38:55 – Power consumption at a vertical farm41:06 – Raising awareness and educating the masses on vertical farming45:18 – What keeps Niko motivated48:35 – Harry thanks Niko for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can learn more about NetledTweetable Quotes“I see that, to actually make a difference in this field when there is a lot of new commerce to the business, you have to offer broader offerings than just the farm and just the details of that farm.” (14:19) (Niko)“That’s the problem for all technology companies. The technology is only as good as the people making it.” (16:45 (Niko)“It’s always difficult when you risk sharing information with your competitors. Then again, when there is a limited amount of talent, that would benefit the entire industry to actually make a successful method so that all the interests of different companies can be met.” (21:58) (Niko)“Since the early days of vertical farming, there were challenges of getting financially feasible technology for actual commercial production.” (28:10) (Niko)“We’re working probably in the most important field right now in solving these food-related issues.” (46:15) (Niko)Resources MentionedNetled Website – https://netled.fi/Netled LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/netled-oy/Netled YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWdujAa_kBqCbOAYx7SJKQNetled Twitter – https://twitter.com/NetledNetled Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/netled_/Netled Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/NetledOyNiko’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/niko-matti-kivioja-93333114/?originalSubdomain=fiSponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryCo-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens, Viraj Puri is on a mission to transform the way we approach our food system by growing greener foods in better ways. Through his work at Gotham Greens, Viraj and his team help to build and operate sustainable greenhouses in cities across America. Today, Viraj and Harry dive deep into the urban farming industry and why it is critical to educate a future workforce of engineers, scientists and farmers to ensure its continued success. They touch on Viraj’s inspiration for launching Gotham Greens, revitalizing communities and innovating for a sustainable future.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways04:27 – Harry welcomes Co-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens, Viraj Puri, to discuss his circuitous path to vertical farming, clean technology, and the origin story of Gotham Greens18:46 – Early lessons Viraj learned and where he gleaned inspiration along the way22:01 – What Viraj would have done differently if given the chance24:55 – Educating talented new engineers and farmers in the vertical farming industry28:57 – A mission-driven organization32:43 – Viraj reflects on his personal growth as a CEO and mentors who have helped him grow along the way36:01 – What the future holds for Gotham Greens40:24 – A tough question Viraj has asked himself recently and what excites him most about the future of vertical and urban farming45:03 – Harry thanks Viraj for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can learn more about Gotham GreensTweetable Quotes“One can obviously deploy technology. But then one has to also ensure that there’s a captive marketplace for those goods and services.” (11:17) (Viraj)“That’s what’s really cool about urban farming, broadly speaking, is that it touches on so many different socioeconomic themes such as public health, environmental education, urban planning. And then, of course, you can do it the way we do it. It’s much more commercial scale and a meaningful amount of food production and supply chain transformation.” (13:20) (Viraj)“We were and continue to be a mission-driven organization that’s deeply rooted in this ethos of trying to make the world a better place and to use fewer resources to produce healthier food.” (24:30) (Viraj)“I think that curiosity is a really important attribute or characteristic for strong leaders. And I think the fact that we built the business from the ground up has necessitated that sense of curiosity.” (34:00) (Viraj)Resources MentionedGotham Greens Website – https://www.gothamgreens.com/Gotham Greens Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/GothamGreens/Gotham Greens LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/gotham-greens-farms/Gotham Greens Twitter – https://twitter.com/gothamgreens/Gotham Greens Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GothamGreens/Viraj’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/v-puri/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryVice President of Innovation at Produce Marketing Association, Vonnie Estes is driven by a passion for agriculture, sustainability and wanting to make an impact on serious issues such as climate change and broken supply chains. Today, Vonnie and Harry engage in a rich discussion on Plant Pathology, educating consumers on vertical farming, and promoting diversity in the AgTech industry. Vonnie shares lessons she’s learned from working at big corporations such as Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont, and her mission to immerse others into the produce industry.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways07:13 – Harry welcomes Vice President of Innovation at Produce Marketing Association, Vonnie Estes, to discuss the work she’s doing in Produce and some of the recent vertical farming conferences she’s attended11:08 – Genetic Engineering & Plant Pathology13:55 – Lessons Vonnie learned from working at Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont17:52 – Vonnie’s vertical farming origin story23:43 – What drives and motivates Vonnie26:16 – The importance of promoting diversity in the AgTech industry and immersing others into the produce industry32:25 – Vonnie goes into detail about ongoing projects at Produce Marketing Association45:00 – The importance of educating consumers on AgTech and vertical farming48:14 – A tough question Vonnie has asked herself recently and what excites her most about the future of AgTech50:08 – Harry thanks Vonnie for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can learn more about Fresh ProduceTweetable Quotes“I think for big companies like that, being willing to let people try new things and let it fail, and try different technologies, and keep it a little bit separate from your ongoing revenue-generating business is a really smart way to do it.” (15:35) (Vonnie)“In part of my work with Caribou when I was looking at spinning out this Ag group, what I really wanted to focus on was what breeding could we do for vertical farms? If you’re growing something inside, does the architecture of the plant need to be different? What are some of the traits you can work with? And so, I was really thinking about breeding for vertical farms.” (20:43) (Vonnie)“I’ve always been driving by [wanting to make an impact]. I think, especially at this time looking at some of the scary macro-drivers around supply chain, and climate change, and some of the other issues we’re facing. And looking at human health and how people need to eat, we can have a big impact on that, on how we grow our food and what food we grow and what food people eat.” (23:51) (Vonnie)“One thing I would say - just to plug some of the work I’m doing currently - is I just started this Accelerator. It’s not an Accelerator in the typical sense where we’re not taking any equity, there’s no big prize or pitch day. But what we’re trying to do is bring in technology from either different industries or from different countries into the produce industry.” (26:52) (Vonnie)“I am thinking a lot about what I can do, from a technology and innovation point of view, to help that part of the industry. And some of the early-stage issues are different.” (38:00) (Vonnie)“With climate change and some of the health issues, the way we grow our food and the food we grow is so important right now. I feel like we’re at this amazing time where on one side we’ve got all these different technologies that we can bring in that can be a solution to these huge problems that we’re facing as a world.” (49:34) (Vonnie)Resources MentionedVertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/Produce Marketing Association Website – https://www.freshproduce.com/Vonnie’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/vonnieestes/Vonnie’s Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-future-of-ag-technology-with-vonnie-estes/id1382453777?i=1000468083379Link to Fresh Produce Technology – https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryPresident and CEO of Unfold, Dr. John Purcell returns to the show to discuss the progress he’s made helping improve efficiencies within the indoor agriculture community. John speaks to his desire to branch out beyond leafy greens, tomatoes and cucumbers to other crops and talks about the recent launch of their Innovation Partner Program.John discusses the various challenges facing the vertical farming industry, how he approaches strategically growing a team, and what the next year holds for Unfold.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways03:41 – Harry welcomes back to the show CEO of Unfold, John Purcell, to discuss ongoing Vertical Farming conferences, supply chain and growing a team strategically 14:33 – The product mix at Unfold 18:29 – Identifying the ideal strategic partner 22:12 – The evolution of breeding programs in vertical farming 24:26 – Overcoming challenges of supply chain, food deserts, and access to local, fresh food 34:12 – Innovations that are happening in the vertical farming industry 44:10 – Exciting plans for Unfold45:48 – A tough question John has asked himself recently and an ask he has for the audience 51:11 – Harry thanks John for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can learn more about the work he’s doing at Unfold Tweetable Quotes“I think for Vertical Farming to really realize its full potential , we have to be seen as part of the supply chain. We have to be seen as part of where produce is heading, an important part rather than just this island out there that has really cool tech.” (10:19) (John) “What we’re most interested in is companies that can generate data, do the testing and trialing, and then provide that on the performance of our specific genetic packages that we’re providing.” (20:23) (John) “It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, whether it’s urban areas or mega cities, people want fresh, local, great quality produce. And they want it produced near to where they’re consuming it. So that’s holding now everywhere in the world.” (25:25) (John) “One of the things I was taught early on when I went into the vegetable side of the business was don’t talk about taste, talk about sensory experience. Because the fact is, the way that we perceive an eating experience goes well beyond taste. It’s how it feels in your mouth. It’s even the sound. Is the crunch, right? It’s the color. It’s the appearance.” (32:04) (John) Resources MentionedVertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/ Unfold Website – https://unfold.ag/Unfold Twitter – https://twitter.com/unfold_agUnfold LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/unfold-ag/John’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jppurcell/Sponsor Info Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Juan Gabriel Succar, CEO and Director of Verde Compacto, the first vertical farming company out of Latin America. Verde Compacto is an organization that is dedicated to reinventing the food industry through technology. Today, Juan shares his origin story and how his passion for environmental sustainability led him to launch Verde Compacto. Juan and Harry talk about the exponential growth of the industry, why mass education and proper hiring are crucial and why government involvement in such endeavors has been lackluster at best. Finally, Juan talks about some of the upcoming projects he’s working on that will help to transform the agri-food industry in Mexico and around the world.Thanks to Our SponsorsCEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/Key Takeaways03:41 – Harry welcomes to the show Juan Gabriel Succar who talks about how his passion for the environment led him and his cousin to launch the very first vertical farming organization in Latin America11:29 – What Juan observed about vertical around the world that inspired him to launch Verde Compacto12:47 – Partnerships and mixing family with business17:38 – Mass education of vertical farming19:26 – Verde Compacto’s offerings and explaining Huvster22:21 – Feedback from early customers26:03 – Government involvement (or non-involvement) in vertical farming31:07 – What’s next for Juan and Verde Compacto34:04 – Harry thanks Juan for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can learn more about Verde CompactoTweetable Quotes“From 2016 to 2019, we focused on developing technology for indoor vertical farming to make it more productive at a lower cost and to reach more people and to get more people into the vertical farming industry.” (04:47) (Juan)“In the end, if we do not have a healthy environment, we cannot have a healthy population. Everything that we do and our lives depend on the environment.” (10:44) (Juan)“I think the most important thing here is to know where you want to go, have certain technical skills, but a lot of creativity and open mindedness to learn new things.” (18:31) (Juan)“That’s very important in this industry to get focused on what you’re good at and what your value proposition is and how to increase it. It’s grow fast, but grow smart as well.” (25:52) (Juan)“We are starting to develop a project for these food deserts. So we start creating a circular economy project, bringing container farms here in order to get better food to the people, which gets them healthy. Being healthy, everything starts working. Then you get jobs there and they can grow their own food. When you create jobs, you create health and you create innovation in these communities.” (27:52) (Juan)Resources MentionedVertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/Juan’s Email – [email protected]’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-gabriel-succar-abascal-53331b191/?originalSubdomain=mxVerde Compacto Website – https://verdecompacto.com/en/home/Verde Compacto Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/verdecompacto/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=7d4a007b-a062-44aa-8724-43195c6bec33Verde Compacto Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/VerdeCompacto/Verde Compacto YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBHLafuf7JC9pt1ec9KrLAwSponsor Info:Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCastDiscover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Michael Sichenzia. Michael is the Managing Director at Go Global Advisors and today, he shares his passion for bringing food to communities and what led him to pursue work in the vertical farming industry.Specifically, Michael speaks to the intricacies of developing container farms, everything from getting zoning approval from the local or city government to what he looks for when building a team. Michael is highly mission-focused and wants to leave a legacy of making the world a better place, or at the very least trying to. Michael touches on his involvement in the From Mary With Love project, his relationship with Freight Farms and his belief that education about the vertical farming industry comes through empowerment. Thanks to Our SponsorsCultivatdIndoor Ag-ConKey Takeaways03:41 – Harry welcomes to the show Michael Sichenzia who talks about his background in real estate and how he made the connection between public storage facilities and modular hydroponic space  08:46 – What Michael looks for when developing farms and when building a team 12:01 – From Mary With Love 15:09 – A budding relationship with Freight Farms 16:38 – Zoning and effectively communicating with your local government and community 19:39 – Empowerment through education 26:34 – Michael speaks to an exciting new project he’s working on in Buffalo 31:16 – Identifying the ideal investor 34:36 – Why Michael is so passionate about bringing food to the community 37:44 – Speculating on the future of vertical farming and why Marketing and PR are key 44:52 – Harry thanks Michael for joining the show and lets listeners know where they can connect with Michael Tweetable Quotes“Having owned and operated restaurants in my past, I saw that that was an area that I wanted to get back to. And I saw that my real estate experience would play into that because I knew how to put together deal structures. And I felt that farming, and urban farming in particular, had a tremendous opportunity with the right deal structure. And that’s how I got into it.” (05:51) (Michael) “I looked at the hydroponics space and saw it’s really a play on storage. Public storage facilities and the way those deals are structured are ideally suited for modular, containerized, hydroponic space in an urban setting. And that was the connection for me.” (07:32) (Michael) “Passion, sticktoitiveness, the idea that we’re gonna make this work no matter what the obstacle is, that’s very important in any entrepreneurial venture.” (13:32) (Michael) “Attacking that and making sure that the city has a variance process, whatever that process is, get it started sooner rather than later. That issue will affect everything. The last thing that you want to do is take delivery of your farm and deploy it and not be able to grow. To me, you need to understand the zoning, communicate with the city, and really work that process effectively.” (17:45) (Michael) “I’m a big believer in good PR and I’m a believer that you make things happen with good PR and good communications.” (22:28) (Michael) “We have to remember that social enterprise is still an enterprise. The key word there is ‘enterprise.’ We tend to forget that. These [containers] need to be self-sustaining otherwise they will fail.” (33:37) (Michael) “I’m not in this for the deal. I’m in this because I want to bring food to the community. And I think that there’s probably never been a better time to marry good deal structure with delivery and production of food. We need it now more than ever. It really is the time to own our own food again. I really believe that.” (34:36) (Michael) “I’ve always tried to be a year ahead of The New York Times. My whole career has been focused on if I can be a year ahead of The New York Times, I’m gonna be doing something.” (40:51) (Michael) “You have to self-promote. If you’re not gonna promote yourself, who is? So, you gotta get out there. You gotta talk about your things. You gotta fail. I fail all the time. There’s that saying, ‘If you want to succeed then double your failure rate.’ Well, I’ve probably quadrupled my failure rate, but that’s part of the process.” (44:20) (Michael) Resources MentionedMichael’s LinkedIn From Mary With LoveSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Summary: Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Christine Zimmermann-Loessl, Chairwoman at Association for Vertical Farming. Association for Vertical Farming (AVF for short) is an internationally active nonprofit organization of individuals, companies, research institutions and universities focusing on leading and advancing the sustainable growth and development of the vertical farming movement.Today, Harry and Christine talk about how Christine’s entrepreneurial spirit and natural curiosity led her from studying philosophy and political science to heading one of the largest vertical farming advocate organizations. Christine speaks to the need for all companies in the vertical farming industry to work together to combat issues like overpopulation, climate change and other existential planetary crises facing our world. Finally, Christine and Harry talk about the critical role technology continues to play in our world and our future as well as the importance of remembering that we are all part of nature. It is at this intersection of technology and nature that vertical farming can play a saving role.Episodes Sponsor: Global Vertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/ Cultivatd – https://cultivatd.com/What We Covered:03:41 – Harry welcomes to the show Christine Zimmermann-Loessl who shares the origins of her entrepreneurial spirit, her background in philosophy and political science, and her goals to understand and positively impact the world 10:26 – An early passion for Chinese medicine 17:08 – The origin story of Association for Vertical Farming and early challenges faced 24:29 – The evolution of Christine’s role at AVF and what she’s observed about competitors and the overall industry 30:00 – Relationship-building in the vertical farming space and growing AVF through partnerships 40:53 – Christine makes a specific ask of the audience 45:56 – Harry thanks Christine for joining the show and reiterates where listeners can go to learn more about AVF and connect with Christine Tweetable Quotes:“My father was an entrepreneur, so I grew up with that spirit of being independent and working in the framework that is set by myself and not by somebody else. I could never imagine myself in an office job from nine to five.” (08:20) (Christine)“Now, with vertical farming, all of that comes together for me with technology and biology. The marriage of these two important developments in our history, I think, is a really decisive transformation for us.” (14:57) (Christine)“The mandate [of Association of Vertical Farming] clearly was to raise awareness and build a collaboration and cooperation platform where the few people or institutions who were active in that field had a place together to exchange and grow organically from there.” (20:41) (Christine)“In the beginning, as a newcomer into that field with a very different background in philosophy and political science and not agriculture, I really played the role of organization setup for the legal and administrative things. There were people in the front representing and knowing much more than me about that and I was really more in the back than I am now. That totally changed, but I really had to grow into that role and into the field to really understand.” (24:36) (Christine)“Technology is important, but please never forget that we are part of nature. Vertical farming can play a role in freeing land giving back to nature and not using more and more land. That is what my understanding is.” (40:21) (Christine)Links Mentioned:Vertical Farming ShowChristine’s LinkedInVertiFarm Website Association for Vertical Farming Website Association for Vertical Farming Facebook Association for Vertical Farming Twitter Association for Vertical Farming LinkedIn Association for Vertical Farming YouTube Channel Association for Vertical Farming Instagram Associations for Vertical Farming EmailLink to Call of the Forest Christine’s EmailSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Summary:Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Ray Urrutia, Founder and CEO of Terra Firma Foods, an organization seeking to develop vertical farms and an innovative way to grow organic crops. Today, Harry and Ray discuss how Ray’s illustrious business background and charitable nature led him to the vertical farming industry. Ray speaks to the challenges that Terra Firma Foods faces and their plans to develop and ‘branchise’ their model farms across the U.S. and, eventually, nationally and internationally. Ray also shares his unique viewpoint of other competing vertical farming organizations and his belief in acting on ideas. Finally, Ray speculates on what the future holds for Terra Firma Foods and invites listeners to reach out to him to learn more. Episodes Sponsor:Global Vertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/ Cultivatd – https://cultivatd.com/What We Covered:03:41 – Harry welcomes to the show Ray Urrutia who speaks to his background in business and his charitable spirit12:13 – The work Ray’s done at the Financial Strategist Consulting Firm, RAU15:58 – Fostering lifelong relationships is business17:24 – Ray recalls the moment he realized how critical vertical farming could be20:41 – Terra Firma’s business model and terraponics explained29:23 – Why Ray has no competition in the vertical farming landscape32:19 – Challenges that Ray foresees for Terra Firma36:54 – Securing funds and setting up R&D for Terra Firma41:49 – Ray speaks to what leaving a legacy means to him as well as his ongoing spiritual journey49:25 – Harry thanks Ray for joining the show and reiterates where listeners can go to learn more about Terra Firma and connect with Ray Tweetable Quotes:“And that’s where food comes in. The necessities of life are eating, shelter, clothing and, in today’s world, transportation. But I look at eating and it’s always been on my mind and in my heart because I couldn’t understand why a country like ours has so many hungry people or a country like ours has food shelters and shelters for people to live in because they don’t have housing.” (08:04) (Ray) “That process, when you look at it, is very archaic because when you cut something and chill it right away, it’s already dying. Chilling does not preserve it. If you take anything that’s wet and you chill it, it’s gonna get cold and freeze. When it freezes, it’s gotta thaw. And I think that’s where the grocery stores in the economic areas that need help can’t get what they’re looking for.” (11:04) (Ray) “I believe food, and the growing of food, is gonna be that billion dollar business for anybody’s involvement in it for the next twenty to twenty-five years.” (14:14) (Ray) “The first thing I saw with that was I can have an impact on the world. It wasn’t how much money I could make or I didn’t even know what it was gonna take. But I said, ‘I could feed the world.’ So when I looked at this I said, ‘Ok, a small container produces three thousand pounds of food per month. I need to produce more than that to feed the people I want to feed and also the customers I’m pursuing.” (17:57) (Ray) “Throughout my career, in anything I’ve ever sold or been a part of, I never looked at anybody as being competition. I think they’re always a complement to each other. We may do it differently, we may do it the same way. But the more of us out there, the more the word gets out.” (29:45) (Ray) “One of my idols - if I can call him that - is Ray Croc. The business modeling that he put together and the way he did it. I want to be the McDonalds of vertical farming.” (32:03) (Ray) “I always tell my kids, ‘If you see something, do something. If you have an idea, act upon it. The worst that could happen is not you being wrong. The worst that could happen is that you’re right and somebody else did it and you didn’t.’” (41:37) (Ray) Links Mentioned:Ray’s LinkedIn Terra Firma Website Vertical Farming Show Link to Visioneering Book Link to The Silent Sea on Netflix Ray’s Phone Number – (630) 429-4025 Ray’s Email Sponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Summary:Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Dandridge Melton, founder of Vertical Growth Farming Systems, an organization that’s seeking to change the way that the world approaches hunger, malnutrition, natural disasters and the effects traditional farming has on our environment through their unique container farms.Today, Harry and Dandridge discuss the vertical farming landscape, competitors to Vertical Growth Farming Systems and how Dandridge’s entrepreneurial spirit has contributed to his success in this immensely important field. They talk about the future of farming and why education is critical if we as a planet are going to be able to adapt to agricultural challenges we soon may face. Dandridge shares his profound belief in this project and talks more about his mission to change the way the world feeds itself.Episodes Sponsor:Global Vertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/ Cultivatd – https://cultivatd.com/What We Covered:03:41 – Harry welcomes to the show Dandridge Melton who shares his fascinating journey as a serial entrepreneur and what inspired him to launch Vertical Growth Farming Systems21:31 – Dandridge recalls the first time vertical farming came on his radar26:52 – Competitors in the vertical farming landscape and the work Dandridge is doing at VGFS34:18 – The importance of educating the youth on vertical farming45:32 – A tough question Dandridge has had to ask himself recently and an ask Dandridge has for the audience51:30 – Harry thanks Dandridge for joining the show and reiterates where listeners can go to learn more about VGFS and connect with Dandridge Tweetable Quotes:“I have learned this from playing hoops in the pickup gym. Every genre of occupation is represented. You’ve got your brain surgeon, your HVHC guy, your lawyer, your plumber, your restaurant owner, your barber. So, over time, you just never know when those relationships are gonna manifest into something you never even thought about.” (17:43) (Dandrige)“So, I think that we are gonna be a gamechanger in the vertical farming space. And I say that for a couple of reasons. So yes you’ve got your industrial-sized guys in vertical farming, the venture capitalist money, where they’re putting it in vertical farming. It’s all these behemoth implementations.” (27:32) (Dandrige)“We have a grow room in our shipping containers, so we can go from seed to seedling, and we have a walk-in cooler. And it’s all driven by solar, so we’re completely off the grid.” (31:40) (Dandrige)“The population continues to grow. We are losing farmable land. So those are diametrically opposed to each other. So, what’s a viable solution? You’re running out of space. You’re running out of good soil. Vertical farming is just going to continue. Whatever it is today, it’s gonna be more important tomorrow. I firmly believe that.” (35:01) (Dandrige)Links Mentioned:Dandridge’s LinkedIn Vertical Growth Farming Systems Website Vertical Farming ShowSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes back to the show Eric Levesque, co-founder and Managing Partner at Cultivatd, an organization that works with some of the indoor farming industry's best product developers and technologies to help people discover which vertical farm tech is best for their projects. Since he was last on the show, Cultivatd has made some incredible strides, including raising $3.5 million in funds during the past year. Today, Harry and Eric discuss the increasingly evolving vertical farming industry, what makes a great team and the process of educating larger, more entrenched corporations in the field of vertical farming. Eric expounds on how Cultivatd’s business model has changed in the past year and a half and their expansion efforts into the United States (USA), United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Australia. Finally, Eric speaks to what continues to drive and motivate him and speculates on new technologies that excite him about the future of vertical farming. Episodes SponsorCultivatd – https://cultivatd.com/What We Covered:03:41 – Harry welcomes back to the show Eric Levesque who provides an update on the insightful work he and his team are doing at Cultivatd and how they identify companies to partner with 12:13 – How Cultivatd’s business model has changed over the past year and how it has changed the trajectory of Cultivatd17:38 – Massive Fundraising25:12 – Eric shares what he’s seeing in the vertical farming environment in places like Dubai 32:09 – How Eric approaches building an effective team  33:48 – More and more vertical farming companies entering the industry 35:47 – New tech that has Eric excited about the future of AgTech 37:19 – Educating larger corporations on vertical farming 41:24 – Eric speculates on the evolution of the industry and how it impacts Cultivatd’s role 45:14 – The importance of continual education in the vertical farming space 46:33 – What keeps Eric driven and motivated 50:15 – Harry thanks Eric for joining the show and reiterates where listeners can go to learn more about Cultivatd and connect with Eric Tweetable Quotes:“The majority of our clients, on the small side at least, are telling us, ‘I want to grow something but I’m not sure how to get there.’ And so what we do is we will tailor a solution that we feel adequately resembles what they are trying to accomplish. And then we can tailor it from there depending on what they actually want to do. Do you have a building? Do you have funding? What scale do you want to start at? What market are you trying to serve? What crops in your area are commanding a price and then we can just give them some tips.” (09:22) (Eric) “Any entrepreneur knows that, at least in the beginning, you have to be a little bit agile with your business. Sometimes the model seems to pivot quite a bit and that’s definitely what we’re seeing here.” (14:33) (Eric) “One of the biggest issues for funds is that usually there’s not enough projects for it and you’re always searching for something. In this industry it seems to be the complete opposite where we have too many projects that need funding and too many great businessmen with good ideas who are in great locations.” (21:02) (Eric) “There’s definitely never a lack of companies coming into this space, but that makes it super exciting. We’re bumping into new partners, new innovations.” (34:13) (Eric) “We’re actually looking to potentially open up a hybrid farm that we’re gonna turn into a vertical farming university, hopefully this year. That’s kind of an ambitious plan that we have.” (45:40) (Eric) Links Mentioned:Eric’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-levesque-a03a33163/?originalSubdomain=ca Cultivatd Website – https://cultivatd.com/ Link to Upstart University – https://university.upstartfarmers.com/ Link to Agritecture – https://www.agritecture.com/ Sponsor Info:Cultivatd Website – https://www.cultivatd.com/Cultivatd Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatdCultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCast: https://fullcast.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Summary:Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Scot Bryson, founder of Orbital Farm, a global agri tech company supplying fresh vegetables, fish, and vegan protein to local markets around the world. Scot has spent his life and career as a problem solver, from picking stones and baling hay in farm fields, to becoming an entrepreneur at 22 and building a multi-million dollar advertising agency over a decade.Today, Harry and Scot dive deep into the fascinating and honorable work Scot is doing to address existential threats such as climate change and other massive issues like world hunger. Scot gets technical and talks about the process by which he builds a team and how he and his team are integrating advanced technologies in vertical farming. Finally, Scot shares his vision for the future of Orbital Farm, which will include building 200 circular mega projects around the planet to support and feed billions of people here on earth today, and spend the next 20 years prototyping and developing the technology to feed people in space in the future.Episodes Sponsor:Freight Farms – https://www.freightfarms.com/ Global Vertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/ Cultivatd – https://cultivatd.com/What We Covered:03:42 – Harry welcomes to the show space farmer and founder of Orbital Farm, Scot Bryson, who joins the show to discuss his passion for problem solving everything from Climate Change to World Hunger19:32 – Orbital Farm’s origin story24:04 – Scot breaks down ‘daily protein’ in layman’s terms28:02 – How Scot approaches the team building process38:09 – The complexities of solving issues like hunger and homelessness46:27 – Scot’s vision for the future of Orbital Farm and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Orbital Farm and how to help50:44 – Another critical piece of the vertical farming story54:18 – Harry thanks Scot for joining the show and reiterates where listeners can go to learn more about Orbital Farms and connect with ScotTweetable Quotes:“We have the same capacity and capability to get through these challenges and struggles. And that was really what I wanted to address and what kept me down this entrepreneurial pathway.” (06:49) (Scot)“The way that we get through climate change is to look at wastestream sources as revenue streams. And if we can make that leap, if we can identify technologies, if we can enable capabilities to where wastestreams look like valuable resources, we can mobilize global capital to invest in the solutions that are needed to address the challenge at the pace and the scale required.” (08:39) (Scot)“Really at the heart of what Orbital Farm is is we are a project development firm. We are integrating proven, existing technologies, and developing these business models and developing these project opportunities in different places that will come in a whole bunch of different forms. We have a very clear architecture, and that architecture is driven so that, in twenty years’ time, we want to have the ability to support hundreds of people living and working in space.” (15:42) (Scot)“The attraction of people to a big vision - when I say two hundred facilities is enough to provide a billion people with food and end World Hunger - that’s an achievable goal in a short enough time frame to adjust the problem. That’s enough motivation for people to volunteer.” (29:13) (Scot)“It’s gonna take a brilliant financial mind who has done significant work and raised significant capital for other purposes. And this [Orbital Farm] is a great opportunity to now come in and help lead that investment vehicle decision.” (49:01) (Scot)Links Mentioned:Scot’s LinkedIn  – https://www.linkedin.com/in/scotbryson/?originalSubdomain=ca Orbital Farm Website - https://orbital.farm/Orbital Farm Email - [email protected] Sponsor Info:Cultivatd Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatd Cultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Summary:Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Simon Deacon, founder and CEO of Light Science Technologies, an organization that provides integrated solutions for the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) market. A dynamic and forward-looking entrepreneur, Simon has founded and grown businesses in Lighting, Electronics and Display manufacture markets. Today, Harry and Simon discuss the intricate and exciting work Simon is doing to disrupt the vertical farming industry. Simon talks in depth about his lighting products, the research his company does and the future of his company, including sensor technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Simon speaks to how Light Science Technologies differentiates themselves from their competitors, the impact supply chain issues have had on his business and how they are approaching customer relations through a lens of partnership. Episodes Sponsor:Freight Farms – https://www.freightfarms.com/ Global Vertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/ Cultivatd – https://cultivatd.com/What We Covered:03:41 – Harry welcomes to the show Simon Deacon, who joins the show to discuss his roots growing up in Derby, his entrepreneurial spirit and what inspired him to launch Light Science Technologies 09:55 – Milestone moments in lighting technology 12:54 – Simon recalls some of the projects he worked on during his time at UK Circuits and Electronics Solutions 18:07 – Defining what it means to truly be ‘organic’ 20:33 – The inspiration to launch Light Science and growing more for less 27:03 – Why sustainability is so vital now more than ever 30:49 – How Light Science is differentiating themselves from their competitors 34:30 – Supply chain issues 37:31 – What’s next for Light Science 40:32 – A tough question Simon had to ask himself recently 45:50 – Harry thanks Simon for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Light Science Technologies and connect with Simon Tweetable Quotes:“People talk about recipe of light to grow plants, which is obviously extremely important because there’s lots of different species of plants around. But generally there’s about a thousand that we might consume as humans to eat.” (15:39) (Simon) “I think we’re more conscious now of what we’re eating, where it comes from and how far it’s travelled to get to your plate. I think we abandoned quite some time ago that idea of being happy just to go to the supermarket and buy the produce without knowing where it comes from.” (18:48) (Simon) “One of our lines is, ‘Grow more for less.’ And that’s what we’re trying to do: grow more for less locally using our technology.” (23:14) (Simon) “When we talk to our customers and the general public, the most important thing to them is food security. And then the second thing is sustainability. So, where is it coming from, how far has it travelled, has it been in an aircraft and why has it been in an aircraft to get to us. So, we thought that we would make a range of products to suit 2021.” (29:20) (Simon) “A lot of our competitors were selling the lighting product. Others are just doing lab work. Others are just doing sensory work. We’ve got all of those, under one roof, where we manufacture our product, we design our own product, but we create that long-term partnership with you. We’re there for the next twenty, thirty, forty years of being in that partnership with you. And that’s what really makes us stand out from all our competitors is the uniqueness of our products and being reusable and recyclable.” (33:51) (Simon) “The sensor technology comes out in the first half of next year where we started to use that AI data, which really, I think, is the key to our growing success.” (40:02) (Simon) Links Mentioned:Simon’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-deacon-6a7b3440/ Light Science Technologies’ Website – https://lightsciencetech.com/ Sponsor Info:Cultivatd Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatd Cultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Summary:Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Matt Ryan, CEO of Soli Organic. Formerly known as Shenandoah Growers, a name inspired by their start in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, Soli Organic is a controlled environment agriculture company that grows exceptional organic produce, at an affordable price, nationwide. Today, Harry and Matt do a deep dive into Matt’s incredible business background, from working at Disney and Starbucks to eventually pursuing an exciting opportunity at Soli Organic. Matt talks about the high growth in the indoor agriculture sector, what Soli Organic is doing to differentiate themselves in this market and the importance of fulfilling the vision of a brand.  Episodes Sponsor:Freight Farms – https://www.freightfarms.com/ Global Vertical Farming Show – https://verticalfarmingshow.com/ Cultivatd – https://cultivatd.com/What We Covered:03:41 – Harry welcomes to the show Matt Ryan, who joins the show to discuss his experience as a business leader going through Covid-19, what he learned from his time at Disney and Starbucks and the journey that brought him to Soli Organic 13:02 – Understanding markets and fulfilling the vision of a brand 19:27 – Matt’s vertical farming origin story and his first 90 days as CEO 29:49 – Matt explains how Soli Organic is differentiating themselves in the world of controlled agriculture 35:03 – From Shenandoah Growers to Soli Organic 42:32 – A tough question Matt has had to ask himself recently and how he thinks about expansion and growing Soli Organic  47:22 – Mentors who have inspired Matt along his journey and something that Matt has changed his mind about recently 50:36 – Harry thanks Matt for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Soli Organic and connect with MattTweetable Quotes:“There’s no such thing as a simple business I learned. And certainly that’s true at soli Organic as well. There’s complexity everywhere and understanding the nuances of business is really important. But, if you don’t understand what the consumer and the customer want, you’ll never get anywhere.” (12:27) (Matt) “I also knew, way back when, as soon as I started doing advertising that I felt like I understood markets. And I think that understanding markets is what business is all about.” (14:52) (Matt) “I’m starting to feel like I’m in that sweet spot where I have all of the perspective of somebody who’s joined from the outside who sees the opportunities, who sees the challenges, who knows the world from a different angle, plus real understanding of what the business is like and how it operates and how the technology and the science work and the people at the company and everything else.” (27:49) (Matt) “The problem with developing brands and marketing in a business like produce is you can’t have a brand if you don’t have consistency. And the way you get consistency is by having a standardized product. And the only way you can get a standardized product in agriculture is to grow stuff indoors.” (39:24) (Matt) Links Mentioned:Matt’s LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattryancmo/ Soli Organic’s Website – https://www.soliorganic.com/ Sponsor Info:Cultivatd Website – https://cultivatd.com/Cultivatd Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatd Cultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production & Marketing by FullCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Aja Atwood. Aja is the co-founder and CEO of Trella Technologies, an organization that provides technical, innovative solutions to make indoor and urban farming a sustainable, long-lasting industry.Today, Harry and Aja talk about the amazing technologies they’re developing at Trella, including automated plant-training robotics. Aja shares her entrepreneurial origin story which started with her natural curiosity and analytical mind and led her to building a company that aiming to change the vertical farming industry. She discusses the incredible work they’re doing with Trella’s partnership with Jean Charles Academy and speaks to the importance of fostering diversity in the workplace. Finally, Aja talks about what’s next for Trella and what excites her about the future of AgTech.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDFreight FarmsKey Takeaways03:41 – Harry welcomes to the show Aja Atwood, who joins the show to discuss her company, Trella, and her vertical farming origin story11:00 – A curious and analytical mind13:15 – Aja’s podcast origin story18:39 – Partnering with Jean Charles Academy25:33 – The Trella Story and the idea to grow plants horizontally32:22 – No More Mondays: the decision to pursue entrepreneurship35:35 – Biggest lessons Aja learned throughout her career38:57 – Aja speaks to the market response to Trella41:38 – What excites Aja most about the future of Trella and vertical farming43:42 – Aja talks about some of the successful partnerships they’ve developed at Trella and some of the AgTech conferences she’s attended46:55 – Aja comments on the lack of diversity in the AgTech industry50:48 – A tough question Aja has had to ask herself recently52:38 – Harry thanks Aja for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Trella and connect with AjaTweetable Quotes“This is the time if you’re curious or you like to try new things. The world is open for you right now.” (13:07) (Aja)“What’s interesting is there are some youths and some children that already know the importance of growing their own food.” (21:10) (Aja)“So, we got into what’s called ‘low-stress’ plant-training. We were trying to figure out how to do that with robotics and not having to rely on that manual operation so much. What we came up with is a system that will automatically train a plant to grow horizontally. Essentially what it does is trick the top of the plant by light with no chemical violation of the plant.” (26:18) (Aja)“I want to be a good leader. I want to create a company where people are thrilled and excited to come to work; they feel like they’re a part of something. I’m trying to create something that I never had. And, that’s what fuels me today.” (34:43) (Aja)“I feel like my entire adult life has been working with people who don’t look like me, and the vertical farming indoor farming industry is no different.” (47:23) (Aja)Links MentionedAja’s LinkedInTrella WebsiteAja’s PodcastAja’s WebsiteTrella’s YouTubeTrella’s InstagramLink to Jean Charles AcademySponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s FacebookFreight Farms WebsiteFreight Farms FacebookFreight Farms Twitter🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Samantha Johnson. Samantha is the Director of Aquaponics Programs at Commonwealth Charter Academy, a top accredited K through 12 public cyber charter school located in Pennsylvania. Samantha is a highly skilled and student-focused leader who possesses a strong commitment to the development of students and staff through differentiated, innovative and individualized learning experiencesToday, Harry and Samantha talk about the work she is doing educating young men and women on the AgTech industry, specifically through the aquaponics program at CCA. She talks about the partnerships CCA has with AeroFarms and Vertical Harvest and the goals they are striving to achieve together. Samantha also speaks to the importance she places on preparing her students for the professional world and the challenges they are likely to face in the vertical farming space. Finally, Samantha discusses what continues to motivate and drive her throughout her teaching and vertical farming journey.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDFreight FarmsKey Takeaways01:13 – Harry welcomes to the show Samantha Johnson, who joins the show to discuss her background in education and the challenges COVID-19 has brought to her profession10:36 – Commonwealth Charter Academy12:23 – Samantha’s vertical farming origin story18:07 – Partnering with AeroFarms and Vertical Harvest19:40 – Student feedback on the Aquaponics Program26:49 – Learning through mistakes31:23 – Changes and trends Samantha has noticed in the vertical farming industry35:48 – Companies and organizations Samantha would like to partner with in the future39:51 – Challenges in AgTech and education46:39 – Something Samantha has changed her mind about recently48:49 – What motivates and drives Samantha51:59 – Harry thanks Samantha for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about CCA and connect with SamanthaTweetable Quotes“Commonwealth Charter Academy is a public cyber charter school located in Pennsylvania. We have numerous building across the state because, although we’re a cyber school, we very much understand that some learners learn best in person or even in a blended model.” (10:41) (Samantha)“Our school itself is very large. We’re up to about sixteen to seventeen thousand students and our mantra is workforce development. We want students to have skills necessary to either enter the workforce after they graduate. Or, if they want to go to college, we want to help them through that entire process from start to finish.” (11:27) (Samantha)“At the end of the day, I want to give them skills that they can use when they graduate. And there are some basic ones that everyone needs to know. You have to show up on time. You have to show up appropriately dressed. Those kind of very basic skills.” (25:07) (Samantha)“I feel like the vertical farming industry changes a mile a minute.” (31:31) (Samantha)“For us it’s more how do we make sure that we meet the needs of all of our students, and on top of that we work with community members too.” (46:11) (Samantha)Links MentionedSamantha’s LinkedInSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s FacebookFreight Farms WebsiteFreight Farms FacebookFreight Farms Twitter🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Rosario Iacono. Rosario is the Founder of Kasveista, a concept stage startup aiming to produce open-source seeds and seedlings for vertical farming. Their goal is to help modern vertical farms expand their range of products by providing seeds and seedlings of tomato of varieties specifically selected for vertical farming.Today, Harry and Rosario talk about the incredible work Rosario is doing at Kasveista and why he chose to focus on the tomatoes as his first crop. Rosario talks about the incredibly vast varieties of tomatoes and shares tips for those who want to grow tomatoes at home. They explain the open source model and why it’s critical to Rosario’s business. Finally, Rosario talks about what’s next for Kasveista, what excites him about the future and how we can educate the masses on vertical farming.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDFreight FarmsKey Takeaways05:02 – Harry welcomes to the show Rosario Iacono, who joins the show to discuss his company, Kasveista, and his vertical farming origin story11:13 – The incredible vast variety of tomatoes16:18 – Tips for people growing tomatoes at home17:01 – What Rosario has discovered about tomatoes throughout the years20:54 – Intensive research and experimentation in vertical farming28:24 – Rosario’s team at Kasveista31:59 – The Open Source Model explained and why it is so critical39:44 – Surprises and challenges from Rosario’s vertical farming journey44:27 – What’s next for Kasveista47:54 – Something Rosario has changed his mind about recently51:52 – Harry thanks Rosario for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Kasveista and connect with RosarioTweetable Quotes“I was getting tomatoes from Sicily in London. But there is no compromise. You either make a tomato that can travel for sixteen hour on a truck, or you make a tasty tomato.” (09:42) (Rosario“What I learned is you can influence a lot of the taste and you can change a lot by the techniques you use to grow the tomatoes.” (17:47) (Rosario)“I try to not think about what a tomato is. I try to think in terms of what a tomato should be now and redraw it from scratch.” (19:01) (Rosario)“Everyone should have access to food. And access to food is access to seeds.” (34:39) (Rosario)“Assuming we can get the funding, I have many ideas that I would like to see happening. First of all, expanding to more and more crops that can be grown in vertical farming. I see the world asking for it.” (44:42) (Rosario)“I think where the education could really start is at school. I think children are really the key to make vertical farming cool. Because through children, you educate their parents.” (49:36) (Rosario)Links MentionedRosario’s LinkedInKasveista WebsiteKasveista InstagramKasveista FacebookSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s FacebookFreight Farms WebsiteFreight Farms FacebookFreight Farms Twitter🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, co- founder & co-CEO at Local Bounti, Craig Hurlbert. Local Bounti is an organization that strives to deliver the freshest, locally grown produce in your neighborhood. Local Bounti sustainably grows fresh greens and herbs 365 days a year in their greenhouses, using 90% less water and 90% less land than conventional agriculture.Today, Harry and Craig talk about Craig’s extensive background in energy, from his time at General Electric (GE) to the origins of Local Bounti. Craig discusses the recent extreme weather and climate and how it has impacted the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry. Craig shares his views on leadership and why he chooses to lead through a centralized vision and goal. Finally, Craig speaks to the work Local Bounti is doing to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and why he’s rooting for all of his competitors in the CEA industry.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDFreight FarmsKey Takeaways01:14 – Harry welcomes to the show Craig Hurlbert, who joins the show to discuss his background in energy and the challenges we’re facing with the recent extreme weather and climate10:12 – Mentors that shaped Craig’s career trajectory14:45 – How Craig met his fellow co-founder, Travis Joyner and how their partnership has evolved18:21 – Leading through foresight and vision19:34 – Local Bounti’s origin story25:10 – Key factors in scaling a business28:53 – Working remotely vs. working in the office32:12 – Lessons Craig learned throughout his journey at Local Bounti35:52 – Supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)40:20 – Multiple winners in the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry46:12 – Never too high, never too low47:33 – Something Craig has changed his mind about recently50:42 – Harry thanks Craig for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Local Bounti and connect with CraigTweetable Quotes“Our desire to move more rapidly into renewable energy has cut out a bunch of what I would call ‘reliable 24/7/365 power supplies’ that are less renewable but more reliable. And that has created some challenges for the different grid systems across the United States.” (05:40) (Craig)“I think when you approach every room you walk into in this manner – park your ego at the door, walk in, roll up your sleeves, we’re all peers, let’s move things forward – I think things work better.” (18:03) (Craig)“Without unit economics, you don’t have a business.” (21:56) (Craig)“I don’t like people who dabble. I don’t like dabbling. I think dabbling is the enemy of progress.” (24:45) (Craig)“It’s important for the listeners to hear, as well, that there will be multiple winners in the CEA space. It’s not Local Bounti or nothing. We’re rooting for all of our competitors and really rooting for the while industry.” (40:20) (Craig)Links MentionedCraig’s LinkedInLocal Bounti WebsiteLocal Bounti LinkedInLocal Bounti YouTube ChannelLocal Bounti FacebookLocal Bounti PinterestSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd Instagram Cultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, co- founder & CEO at Brick Street Farms, Shannon O’Malley. Brick Street Farms is a hydroponic, indoor city farm that grows leafy greens year-round in technology based, climate controlled environments. Their mission is to grow the most nutritious produce at the heart of consumption.Today, Harry and Shannon talk about how Shannon became an ‘accidental co-founder’ within the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry. Shannon discusses the key differentiating factor of Brick Street Farms and shares some of the amazing work they are doing to educate society on this growing segment. Harry and Shannon talk about the recent extreme weather, most notably the deep freeze in Texas, and how more of these climactic events are impacting how our food is grown, harvested and delivered to us. Finally, Shannon speaks to the initiatives Brick Street Farms is involved with, including combatting food deserts.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDKey Takeaways02:58 – Harry welcomes to the show Shannon O’Malley, who joins the show to discuss her engineering background and her passion for building and creating13:39 – An accidental co-founder17:18 – Extreme weather and vertical farming21:11 – Brick Street Farms’ origin story and a key differentiating factor about them25:51 – An amazing reaction from the community27:32 – Educating the masses on career opportunities within the vertical farming industry32:30 – Challenges that the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) industry faces, including contamination35:57 – Taking on a leadership role at Brick Street Farms and facing new challenges such as COVID-1941:59 – Connecting with other CEA companies44:08 – What’s next for Brick Street Farms as the grow and expand their team and organization51:09 – Harry thanks Shannon for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Brick Street Farms and connect with ShannonTweetable Quotes“I definitely think my passion for science and engineering laid the foundation for me today to at least have the curiosity to try.” (13:08) (Shannon)“A key differentiating factor for Brick Street Farms is that our focus is wholesale hospitality and direct-to-consumer and not mass distribution through grocery stores or food supply companies.” (22:29) (Shannon)“We would not have been able to get where we are today if we didn’t have the amazing reaction and support of our community.” (26:25) (Shannon)“We like to use a phrase called, ‘Advanced Simplicity.’ We build our machines so that anyone can operate them because you have to be able to build this labor force and this workforce. And we get folks from all walks of life, former delivery drivers and warehouse workers to plumbers to science students. And so we want people to be able to come in and be effective right away.” (30:58) (Shannon)“Brick Street Farms is only as successful as we build our Thrive Containers. And Thrive Containers is our manufacturing brand. Brick Street Farms can only be as successful as good of a machine that we build. So, we work to build a machine with highest ROI with the lowest inputs.” (43:00) (Shannon)“We’re focused on expanding our brand, our marketing, our consumer outreach and governmental affairs.” (46:03) (Shannon)Links MentionedShannon’s LinkedInBrick Street Farms WebsiteBrick Street Farms TwitterBrick Street Farms InstagramBrick Street Farms FacebookThrive Containers WebsiteSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, CEO and co-founder of Fifth Season, Austin Webb. Fifth Season is a consumer tech company and indoor farming pioneer with Carnegie Mellon University roots that is creating a new era of fresh foods. Its commercial-scale indoor vertical farms use proprietary robotics, AI, and smart operations technology to grow leafy greens and herbs at affordable prices year-round. Today, Harry and Austin talk about the origin story of Fifth Season, the relationship he has with the city of Braddock and how Austin initially got involved in vertical farming. Austin expounds on the concepts of smart manufacturing and pest pressure and speaks to the learning curve he’s experienced as a first-time CEO. Finally, Austin speaks to the mission of Fifth Season and what excites him most about his future endeavors.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDKey Takeaways03:14 – Harry welcomes to the show Austin Webb, who trends he’s noticed post-pandemic, his relationship with Carnegie Mellon University and the origin story of Fifth Season08:53 – Austin speaks to when he first got involved in vertical farming11:50 – How Fifth Season is applying robotics to the vertical farming industry16:27 – Austin reflects on some of the memorable challenges and obstacles Fifth Season overcame throughout its journey20:18 – Austin talks about Fifth Season’s accomplishment of achieving a 100% Food Safety Audit ranking25:32 – Austin explains what ‘pest pressure’ means28:21 – Austin talks about the relationship Fifth Season has with the city of Braddock and the impact they have had on the community34:44 – Austin speaks to the learning curve he’s experienced as a first-time CEO37:41 – A tough question Austin has had to ask himself recently38:07 – Harry thanks Austin for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Fifth Season and connect with AustinTweetable Quotes“We wanted to create this whole new platform to really change the way we think about vertical farming, to therefore make it an economic reality today instead of just a pipe dream for the future.” (08:43) (Austin)“We don’t really consider ourselves a vertical farming company. We’re a new food system pioneer that’s creating a whole new era of fresh foods and we started that journey with vertical farming.” (19:18) (Austin)“The first Carnegie Library was in Braddock. So when you think of how we’re changing the way that we think about growing food and then creating this whole new consumer experience around changing the definition of what fresh food should taste like and making it fun again. And then creating this joy and delight around eating healthy because again you’re just creating this whole new category of fresh food and making it more ubiquitous and making it easier to eat healthier.” (29:37) (Austin)“It [the CEO role] is just a very hard job. And, you just think about your team, your key responsibilities that are both internal and external, and you just have to learn to manage the time. And decision making has to be at the forefront because you don’t help your team if you’ve gotten yourself into a position of decision fatigue.” (35:51) (Austin)Links MentionedAustin’s LinkedInFifth Season Fresh WebsiteFifth Season LinkedInFifth Season TwitterFifth Season InstagramFifth Season FacebookSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at AeroFarms, Marc Oshima. AeroFarms is an award-winning indoor farming company that is on a bold mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity. Today, Harry and Marc talk about Marc’s background in marketing and how it has impacted his work at AeroFarms. Marc provides his thoughts on the concept of ‘speed breeding,’ speaks to his passion for food and expounds on the concept of utilizing business as a force for goodEpisode SponsorCULTIVATDKey Takeaways02:37 – Harry welcomes to the show Marc Oshima, who discusses the impact COVID-19 has had on his business, his background in marketing and the power of telling the story behind the food08:23 – Marc talks about the value of AeroFarms being a Certified B Corporation11:51 – Marc explains the concept of ‘speed breeding’ and how he got involved in marketing and food17:22 – Marc reflects on the work he did at Toys R’ Us20:54 – Marc expounds on the vision and mission of AeroFarms and the importance of food literacy27:30 – Marc talks about the journey of AeroFarms and potential future expansions29:06 – Marc speaks to the experience of AeroFarms going public32:23 – Marketing trends Marc has noticed throughout his career and the impact of social media marketing35:43 – Where Marc sees companies get it wrong in their approach to customer relations37:48 – Marc speaks to some of the initiatives AeroFarms prioritizes43:49 – A tough question Marc has had to ask himself recently46:22 – Harry thanks Marc for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about AeroFarms and connect with MarcTweetable Quotes“This idea that business can be a force for good expands beyond just the world of agriculture. This is about other verticals and we’re hoping that we can be an inspiration and a catalyst for other companies as well.” (09:04) (Marc)“Thinking about key genetic traits plus the rapid growing process, that’s really leading to this rapid cultivation, this speed breeding. This is what we think about as the next generation of the indoor farming opportunities that we continue to unlock.” (12:15) (Marc)“For us, what we’re doing and have been doing in the category of leafy greens is we’re creating different flavor experiences.” (20:54) (Marc)“We’ve been very specific about how to build our brand. And I think that’s a very important part of the equation today without question. And part of that is the journey with the consumer hand-in-hand and how do we collectively get them to be our brand advocates and brand ambassadors.” (33:30) (Marc)Links MentionedMarc’s LinkedInAeroFarms WebsiteAeroFarms TwitterAeroFarms InstagramAeroFarms FacebookSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryHarry takes a moment to thank the listeners and provide updates on the remaining Season 3 episodes.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDIndoor A-Con - save $100 w/ promo code VFPOD2021   Links MentionedVFP Chat RoomWeekly NewsletterSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, co-founder at Fazenda Urbana, Thomas Oberlin. Fazenda Urbana is the producer of the MightyGreens brand of vegan microgreens and mushrooms. Today, Harry and Thomas talk about the origin story of Fazenda Urbana and how Thomas became involved in controlled environment agriculture. Thomas provides his thoughts on the evolution of entrepreneurship and why that spirit is so prominent in Brazillian culture. Finally, Thomas speaks to what excites him about the future of micro greens, the Mighty Greens brand and the AgTech industry as a whole.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDKey Takeaways02:37 – Harry welcomes to the show Thomas Oberlin, who shares the story of how heended up living in Brazil and how he got involved in controlled-environment agriculture11:33 – Thomas speaks to how shocked he was to learn about food deserts in many wealthy countries13:49 – Thomas reflects on the origin story of Fazenda Urbana18:00 – The initial response Thomas and his team received after launching their micro greens24:43 – Thomas explains why he approached chefs and restaurants first and foremost28:28 – Thomas speaks to the evolution of the entrepreneur movement34:27 – The relationship between Fazenda Urbana and the Mighty Greens brand and how Thomas and his company got involved in mushrooms53:31 – Thomas explains the difference between fogponics, hydroponics and aeroponics56:19 – What excites Thomas the most about the future of micro greens and the vertical farming industry1:01:21 – Harry thanks Thomas for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Fazenda Urbana and connect with ThomasTweetable Quotes“The reality is I grew up on a farm. Rodrigo’s a vegetarian. But beyond that, we didn’t have any touch with agriculture.” (15:32)“And so, our restaurant business grew literally by going door-to door in the start. And then combined with word of mouth from one well-known chef and then another well- known chef.” (26:09)“I think entrepreneurship is very strong here. Brazilians always have this spirit of figuring out a way to do something.” (28:44)“The best thing that happened to us when we started is that we didn’t raise a whole lot of money. It forced us to be extraordinarily disciplined in what we’re doing. We just learned so much. In two and a half years we cut our labor cost per unit by seventy-five percent through mechanization and processes. And I’m not sure if that would have happened much faster with a lot of money in our pocket.” (31:51)“I believe that we can create micro greens as the gateway vegetable for kids.” (46:52)Links MentionedThomas’ LinkedInFazenda Urbana WebsiteMighty Greens InstagramSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, CEO at Fluence, David Cohen. Fluence is a horticultural lighting company owned by OSRAM. They explore physiological plant development under various levels of photosynthetically active radiation and custom spectra compositions. Today, Harry and David talk about David’s eclectic background in the LED lighting industry and the circuitous route that led him to Fluence. David reflects on the learning curve he experienced transitioning into his role as CEO of Fluence, highlights from his earlier career and best practices for scaling quickly in the fast-paced industry of vertical farming.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDKey Takeaways02:37 – Harry welcomes to the show David Cohen, who talks about his fervor for health and wellness, what leadership means to him and mentors who have impacted him16:52 – David recalls highlights and lessons he learned during his time at Fraen23:42 – David talks about how he got involved in the controlled environment agriculture market and the circuitous route that brought him to Fluence28:45 – David reflects on the learning curve he experienced moving into his role at Fluence37:02 – David provides best practices for scaling extremely quickly42:25 – David discusses the pivoting he and his organization needed to do in the midst of the global pandemic43:31 – David describes the current offerings that Fluence offers47:51 – David talks about where he’s seeing the most innovation in the LED industry51:04 – A tough question David has had to ask himself recently55:23 – Harry thanks David for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Fluence and connect with DavidTweetable Quotes“Over all the different jobs I’ve had that you do your best to keep customers happy, but it’s not always gonna work out. There are times when customers are just going to be furious. That’s a great opportunity to get closer to a customer. Don’t be afraid of negativity and don’t be afraid of aggression. Absorb it and do something with it rather than let it intimidate you.” (14:24)“Failure is part of success as far as I view it. There’s no such thing as perfection.” (16:46)“Scaling is scaling. When you want to go from slow to fast, from small to big, from Texas to Canada to Europe to Asia, you need to follow the same footprint. And I’m lucky my experiences were really well suited to help [Fluence] do what it wanted to do.” (27:42)“I think that the capital to effect this type of change globally is available, but you need really great people to step in and say ‘I’m gonna take a chance here. I wanna do something that’s right. I don’t know if it’ll be successful or not, but we’re gonna go do it anyway.’” (32:55)“What we’re [Fluence] trying to do is make sure that we base everything that we do on research and science. We want to be able to go to growers and say, ‘Either talk to our customers or talk to our Research partners.’” (45:51)“In an industry and a market like this, I think that if you’re not prepared to pivot, to be flexible and to adapt to what’s happening, you’re gonna have a tough time.” (51:49)Links MentionedDavid’s LinkedInFluence WebsiteSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show, co-founder and CEO at Oishii, Hiroki Koga. Oishii grows the best fruit in the world by deploying ground-breaking vertical farming technology that pushes the boundaries of agriculture. Today, Harry and Hiroki talk about the origin story of Oishii and how they became the first in the world to grow fruit in an indoor vertical farm at commercial scale. Hiroki reflects on lessons he’s learned throughout his entrepreneurial journey, speaks to those who have influenced and inspired him and expounds on the importance he places on living up to the quality and standards of the Oishii brand. Finally, Hiroki shares his excitement for future expansion of his business and what excites him the most about the future of Oishii.Episode SponsorCULTIVATDKey Takeaways02:45 – Harry welcomes to the show Hiroki Koga, who talks about his experience living in Europe as a child, the decision to go into consulting and finding his passion07:52 – Hiroki recalls the culture shock he encountered the first time he came to the U.S.09:36 – Hiroki’s vertical farming origin story15:41 – Hiroki speaks to what inspired him to launch Oishii23:24 – Hiroki expounds on why he embraces tough challenges25:12 – Harry and Hiroki talk about some of the more popular brands of fruit in Japan28:00 – When Hiroki realized there was an opportunity in the vertical farming industry32:36 – Hiroki recalls some of the early days of Oishii and what his marketing strategy was38:19 – Hiroki describes the Omakase Berry to the audience and shares his plans for growth43:03 – Hiroki reflects on lessons and takeaways from his journey thus far45:41 – Who Hiroki looks to for inspiration and a tough question Hiroki has had to ask himself recently50:52 – Harry thanks Hiroki for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can learn more about Oishii and connect with HirokiTweetable Quotes“I was always trying to look for what my passion in life was. And I kinda struggled to find what I was truly passionate about when I graduated from college. And I went into consulting to try to find my passion.” (05:29)“When we think about ten or twenty years out, who’s going to succeed in the leafy green space is the company who can raise the most amount of money and who can produce a head of lettuce one cent cheaper than their competitors.” (17:11)“And that’s really when I started thinking that maybe if I started with a different crop that can overcome all of these hurdles that the leafy green companies have faced, maybe there’s a viable business model, a company, an interesting business model that’s not just about being a cent cheaper than competitors but something more exciting.” (19:11)“I think [Japan] has a very interesting culture when it comes to fruits. Instead of gifting wines, people will gift fruits.” (27:08)“I think the most important thing for us was not the early revenue, but making sure that we lived up to the quality and standards of the brand that we wanted to build.” (35:46)“The only thing that I have confidence in is my passion for this industry and my xperience in this industry and my knowledge and how I think this industry is going to trend. That’s my strength.” (47:22)Links MentionedHiroki’s LinkedInOishii WebsiteOishii InstagramSponsor Info:Cultivatd WebsiteCultivatd InstagramCultivatd’s TwitterCultivatd’s Facebook🎙️🎙️🎙️Podcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34ySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.