An urban farm grows in Brooklyn
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[June 06, 2017]
By Melissa Fares
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Erik Groszyk, 30, used
to spend his day as an investment banker working on spreadsheets. Now,
he blasts rapper Kendrick Lamar while harvesting crops from his own
urban farm out of a shipping container in a Brooklyn parking lot.
The Harvard graduate is one of 10 "entrepreneurial farmers" selected by
Square Roots, an indoor urban farming company, to grow kale, mini-head
lettuce and other crops locally in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood
of Brooklyn.
For 12 months, farmers each get a 320-square-foot steel shipping
container where they control the climate of their own farm. Under pink
LED lights, they grow GMO-free greens all year round.
Groszyk, who personally makes all the deliveries to his 45 customers,
said he chooses certain crops based on customer feedback and grows new
crops based on special requests.
"Literally the first day we were here, they were lowering these shipping
containers with a crane off the back of a truck," said Groszyk. "By the
next week, we were already planting seeds."
Tobias Peggs launched Square Roots with Kimbal Musk, the brother of
Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk, in November, producing
roughly 500 pounds of greens every week for hundreds of customers.
"If we can come up with a solution that works for New York, then as the
rest of the world increasingly looks like New York, we'll be ready to
scale everywhere," said Peggs.
In exchange for providing the farms and the year-long program, which
includes support on topics like business development, branding, sales
and finance, Square Roots shares 30 percent of the revenue with the
farmers. Peggs estimates that farmers take home between $30,000 and
$40,000 total by the end of the year.
The farmers cover the operating expenses of their container farm, such
as water, electricity and seeds and pay rent, costing them roughly
$1,500 per month in total, according to Peggs.
"An alternative path would be doing an MBA in food management, probably
costing them tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars,"
Peggs said, adding that he hopes farmers start companies of their own
after they graduate from the program.
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"Square Roots" Co-founder Tobias Peggs poses for a portrait inside
one of 10 hydroponic climate controlled farms growing inside
repurposed 320-square-foot metal shipping containers where
entrepreneur farmers enrolled in the "Square Roots" farming program
are growing and selling a variety of greens in the parking lot of a
former Pfizer factory in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City, U.S.
on May 5, 2017. Picture taken May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar
Groszyk harvests 15 to 20 pounds of produce each week, having been
trained in artificial lighting, water chemistry, nutrient balance,
business development and sales.
"It's really interesting to find out who's growing your food," said
Tieg Zaharia, 25, a software engineer at Kickstarter, while munching
on a $5 bag of greens grown and packaged by Groszyk.
"You're not just buying something that's shipped in from hundreds of
miles away."
Nabeela Lakhani, 23, said reading "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side
of the All-American Meal" in high school inspired her to change the
food system.
Three nights per week, Lakhani assumes the role of resident chef at
a market-to-table restaurant in lower Manhattan.
"I walk up to the table and say, 'Hi guys! Sorry to interrupt, but I
wanted to introduce myself. I am Chalk Point Kitchen's new urban
farmer,' and they're like, 'What?'" said Lakhani, who specializes in
Tuscan kale and rainbow chard.
"Then I kind of just go, 'Yeah, you know, we have a shipping
container in Brooklyn ... I harvest this stuff and bring it here
within 24 hours of you eating it, so it's the freshest salad in New
York City.'"
(Reporting by Melissa Fares in New York; Additional reporting by
Mike Segar in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)
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