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Alternative Energy - Monday, February 8, 2010

Indoor Ag's AeroFarms Seeded with $500K

Ithaca,NY-based Aero Farm Systems has raised $500K in seed funding from The Quercus Trust and 21Ventures. The startup competes in the field of AeroPonics. They sell systems that grow produce without soil or sun, year-round. Their product is a modular, vertically stackable system that is designed for ti sut in vacant urban buildings. Sounds like a eye candy for your urban ganja man.

So why aeroponic methods vs. outdoor or greenhouse methods? AeroFarms says: Compared to conventional growing, AeroFarms systems grow the same yield using:

+3% of the land
+ Less than 20% of the water
+ 2% transportation fuel & miles

The final point that is key to why they target urban areas. Rather than fly in vegies from Chile to the urban areas you can grow in the urban and often cold areas and then just get it to market a few miles away. We don't know much about farming but there seems to be some logic here.

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