Infarm in-store living produce farms in Kroger stores

02-12-2019 | Smart farming | News

Infarm launches its very first U.S. urban farm in collaboration with Kroger / QFC in Kirkland, Washington on November 25, 2019. The first harvest marks the bringing of high-quality, sustainably- grown herbs and leafy greens directly in their neighborhood. Photo by Marcus Donner Infarms are modular and can stack to fit any given space. You ll find them in supermarkets, restaurants and distribution centers, where the produce is harvested and offered fresh, living and full of flavor, right in your neighborhood. We remotely control all infarms through our cloud-based farming platform, that learns, adjusts and improves itself continuously, so each plant grows better than the one before. Each infarm is a controlled ecosystem with the perfect amount of light, air & nutrients. An optimal set of conditions that enables our plants to express their natural tastiness to the fullest. By recreating different growing environments from around the world, we are growing plants previously too delicate, rare or expensive to survive the long journey to your plate. As we install infarms in neighbourhoods around the world, we re saving thousands of food miles, preserving water and natural resources, and laying the foundation for a new urban food system.

A partnership between America’s largest grocery retailer Kroger and Infarm will bring modular living produce farms to North America.

The living produce farms were launched at 2 of the 15 stores planned at QFC – a Kroger banner – at locations in Bellevue and Kirkland, Washington.

Using hydroponic technology, the produce grows on site at the participating QFC stores, removing the need for extended transportation and storage. The farms are designed to scale.

Connected and controlled through central farming platform

The individual farms are connected and remotely controlled by Infarm’s central farming platform (via sensors) that learns, adjusts and improves itself continuously, so each plant grows better than the one before.

From the cloud, at Infarm’s Berlin headquarters, the company is able to gather up-to-the-minute information about how the plants are growing (including specific metrics such as temperature, pH, and nutrient concentration) and how they respond to different growth environments on a minute scale.

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Infarm launched its first U.S. urban farm in collaboration with Kroger / QFC in Kirkland, Washington. – Photos: Marcus Donner

Infarm says it can make many of the needed adjustments remotely. Their growers also offer support for the farms on site as needed. The so-called Infarmers visit the farms regularly to harvest mature plants, place them at the point of sale, and plant new seedlings for the next cycle.

According to Infarm, each 2 square meter in-store farm produces more than 8,000 plants per year, and it’s hub farms are able to produce much more.