“Like any business, there are reasons for failure, and the causes of failure are many and varied. In this industry, perhaps the main point of functional failure is still technology choice rather than purpose.” , AmHydro Vice President Joe Swartz said while answering questions. Explain what CEA is trying to do in the industry.
The goal is not to run a CEA project, but to produce lettuce, and for whom? The community. To feed them. I want to help make money and become an entrepreneur. According to Joe, technology and approaches are not always aligned with his CEA's overall goals. And in many cases it isn't.
“Mainly, what we've seen is techniques that are horticulturally unsound and economically unsound, or a combination thereof. It's simply that the techniques and approaches are We've heard a lot of excuses, but I haven't made any excuses yet. Some say we couldn't produce at an economical price to be competitive. That's the cause of 99.9 percent of all the failures I've seen in this industry.”
A panel discussion on “Cutting Through the Noise, Navigating the Future” moderated by Alison Driskill of Philips included CEA Advisor Glenn Bearman, Seed2Source’s Jennifer Waxman, and Amhydro’s Joe Swartz joins us.
Glenn Behrman explains that CEA is a relationship-based business and he has noticed that many people who join it have built relationships before entering the industry. He wonders how many people are getting into this business and evaluating the market. The key factors are: “What to grow and who will buy it?” “What works in one place may not work in another. It all has to do with utilities, labor costs, land costs, taxes, government incentives, and the list goes on. When interacting with entrepreneurs who want to start a CEA business, Glenn always advises them to explore local retail stores, talk to produce managers, get feedback and do their due diligence before actually getting started. Masu.”
Alison Driskill, Glenn Bearman, Jennifer Waxman, Joe Swartz
Common points of failure
Allison points out that there have been many failures and lessons learned for producers, technology companies, or both. “What are the commonalities that we've seen over the years? What can we learn from them?”
Jennifer Waxman asked herself this question and said, “There's a 'they'll come' mentality, which is a big part of our industry, and what Glenn said about due diligence. We'll go back and answer the question, “Why do you want to do this?'' Join us in this field: “Before we ran a farm, we ran many other farms. We know everything. We were going to go low-tech, have great plantings, and supplement that with technology.”
Although CEA hasn't cracked the code on some of its work, Jennifer says the “one day” mentality is very dangerous and is where many VC models come from. “There are a lot of charlatan-like newcomers in this industry who think they see the solution from an outsider's perspective. That doesn't work either. We have to be honest and start working together. “Because we're the first ones. 1% of 99% of what's going on in the world. If we want this to continue, we need more honest dialogue.”
Call for transparency and lobbying
Lobbying is necessary because there is a gap between outdoor growers and indoor growers, and there are many incentives that CEA should receive, such as CEA crop insurance. “These are big deals that will break the turmoil. We may have the best operations, but we still have a lot of opposition. We're going to change things to shine a better light on this industry.” “We're not coming together as a group to lobby for the cause,” Jennifer says.
Still, greenwashing must stop. “People come here and maybe have insecurities and say a lot of bad things about people, but that doesn't help us. The big story is all the gossip that's out there, all the ' I can do better.’ They don’t have anything, the background. But that’s what’s ruining the industry. We started out as producers, and then we added technology. Most of what we're seeing is technology first and then finding producers and just connecting technology to things that are alive 24/7.”
However, agriculture never sleeps, and the way of thinking is very different. Fortunately, some companies have learned from these lessons and are now rebuilding. I think we're all consultants on some of those things. “I think they'll be back by next year. We don't even know if they're coming back yet because there are some great companies gearing up.”
Joe goes on to say, “We need some honesty and transparency. As an industry, for the most part, we've been very good at that internally. We need to stop whitewashing too. And we should push things that aren't being talked about under the rug.” about. “
Indoor Ag-Con 2025 edition will be held on March 11-12, 2024 in Las Vegas, USA.
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