Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photo: Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Historically costly indoor hydroponic farms are becoming more accessible to small-scale U.S. farmers.
Why it matters: While extreme weather exacerbated by climate change hurts crop yields, some small farmers are turning to ag-tech solutions that have long been sequestered from anyone but the rich.
The big picture: Indoor hydroponic farms, or just indoor farms, are tech-driven, weather-controlled production sites that grow crops in nutrient solutions rather than soil.
What they're saying: According to Nona Yehia, CEO and co-founder of Vertical Harvest Farms, indoor farming has long been associated with a major barrier to access — high start-up and operating costs.
On a hyper-local level, indoor farming is being explored as a food insecurity mitigation tool by communities in urban food deserts, according to Lisa Price, an Oregon State University professor of anthropology who researches food systems.
Meanwhile, Virginia's Babylon Micro-Farms sells indoor farming units optimized for hydroponic produce growth.
At Boston-based ag-tech company Freight Farms, commercial-scale mobile hydroponic farms also present accessible options for small farmers, according to CEO Rick Vanzura.
Of note: "It's not for everyone," Hamilton Horne, owner of South Carolina's King Tide Farms, says of the cost.
Yes, but: The returns have since made Horne glad he invested, especially with the recent rise in demand for the varieties of greens he grows and sells to local chefs and restaurants.
The bottom line: "With the hurricane this year, everybody's crops around here got ruined. We just went through a frost hit, everybody's got knocked down again," Horne tells Axios. "I'm the lone guy standing strong."
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note that a single farm from Virginia's Babylon Micro-Farms costs around $15,000, not $3,500.
Indoor farming becomes more accessible to small-scale farmers – Axios
