66. Live from IFPA’s Global Show: Technology’s Critical Role in Local Produce and Controlled Environment Farming

Live from IFPA’s Global Show: Technology’s Critical Role in Local Produce and Controlled Environment FarmingA very special live podcast from IFPA’s 2022 Floral and Produce show! We are talking with Craig Hurlbert and Dave Vosburg of Local Bounti, John Purcell of Unfold, and Ali Daniali of HRVSTS.Join us as we discuss:Networking at a global level at the IFPA’s Floral and Produce Show. Growing customer demand for locally grown produce Sustainability in the food system.The challenges and possibilities of controlled environment farming. Using Data to inform growing operations. Segment 1 - Craig Hurlbert (CEO) and Dave Vosburg (Chief Innovation Officer) of Local Bounti“Controlled environment food growing is very capital intensive, so this model will require management to have a strong understanding of running capital intensive operations.’ - CraigLocal Bounti is an indoor farming company with an aggressive growth plan over the next five years to deliver delicious, great texture, flavorful products to their customers all across the United States, locally grown. The demand for locally grown produce is there, the logistics and infrastructure is evolving. People want convenience, less shelf time, flavor, and low price points. Salad kits are a good example of a winning product right now. Local Bounti is expanding to Texas and Oregon and looking into acquiring other facilities as well. Segment 2 - John Purcell (Chief Strategy Officer) of Unfold“Controlled environment [farming] is a confluence of amazing technologies; I like to describe it as Silicon Valley meets Salinas Valley.” — John According to John, this industry is a huge mashup of many sectors in tech, “a confluence of technologies.”People are drawn to this work because they want to use their skills on something that matters. The reason they get attracted to this is because of the work done producing food in a way better for the planet. It's new in some ways, but in some ways, it's not. There's a cross fertilization of ideas and technologies from outdoor crop growing and indoor crop growing happening all the time these days.John suggests we look at the technologies that are out there, and let's figure out how to apply them.Segment 3 - Ali Daniali (CEO/Founder) of HRVSTS“We've flipped the equation. For growers, it's actually a push versus pull type of equation, where the buyer is actually telling the grower what to grow” — AliHRVSTS grows and sells specialty produce to food service companies. Using data they can get specialty leafy greens from seed to customer in 7 weeks or less, depending on the crop.  They use data to eliminate the inefficiencies in the system and also contract with small growers and help new farmers get online quickly. Guest ResourcesLocal Bounti - https://localbounti.com/Craig Hurlbert - https://www.linkedin.com/in/craighurlbert/David Vosburg - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdavidvosburg/Unfold - https://unfold.ag/John Purcell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jppurcell/HRVSTS - https://hrvsts.com/Ali Daniali -