Greenhouse Business: Start-Up Costs, Profits, and Labor

As real estate prices continue to reach historic highs, Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is emerging as a solution for landlocked urban and suburbanites.

This article will feature an entry-level greenhouse that can fit on a 1,000 ft2 footprint and can be operated as a part-time job.

We will take some time to understand which crops are appropriate, seasonal variations, and market pricing for several popular crops. Finally, we will take a look at the startup costs involved and the potential profits.

Indoor Hydroponic Farming: Costs and Profits [without the fluff]

 

Is hydroponic farming profitable?

Hydroponic farming is experiencing a boom and getting a lot of attention in the press, but many are left with the question, "is hydroponic farming really profitable?"

Hydroponic farms are most commonly built indoors or in greenhouses. Both types of farms have been proven commercially, with dozens of farm operations around the world. These are highly productive facilities that are generating enough revenue to pay overhead expenses and provide healthy wages for farm workers.

[Live event] - Can Indoor Farming be Profitable?

Indoor Farming is Booming

Bright Agrotech is providing transparency and powerful resources for aspiring hydroponic farmers. As we have covered in previous sessions, a number of trends are colliding to allow small urban and suburban growers to enter the produce market.

[Live Event] - LED Lighting and HVAC: Breakthrough Innovation

Artificial lighting brings unwanted heat - what's a grower to do?

With the falling cost of LED lighting, many growers are adding supplemental lighting to their farms.

But LED lighting can bring an often unwanted cost to the equation in the form of cooling costs. 

This article will introduce the costs and benefits of an HVAC system, and includes a recorded conversation with Dr. Nate Storey as he discusses LED lighting, cooling costs and HVAC systems. 

[Live Event] Indoor Farming Startup Costs and Financing Strategies

Missed the live event? Don't worry, we have you covered.

If you are looking for real information, you have come to the right place. Indoor farming promises to bring fresh, local produce to your neighborhood. In this session, Dr. Storey shares numbers for an 1,800 square foot vertical growing system. 

[Live Event No. 3] - Economics of Indoor Crop Production: Operating Expenses

Labor, packaging and lighting costs

How much can one person grow? How much does energy and lighting cost?

It can be hard to plan your indoor farm without some insight into these costs. If you missed the live event, we have you covered! Check out the video recap below, and be sure to stay tuned for future live streams to keep up to date on the latest news and conversations in indoor agriculture!

[Live Event No. 2] - Investing in Indoor Farming

Is indoor growing worth the investment?

Missed out on this live event?

We've got you covered.

Stay tuned for future live streams to keep up to date on the latest news and conversations in indoor agriculture! Is indoor growing worth the investment?

Each week we discuss topics relative to the new and evolving world of the agtech industry. 

[Live Event No. 1] - The Evolution of Indoor Farming

Indoor farming is a relatively new trend powered by a number of factors.

We have been growing food under the sun and the wind for thousands of years. However, in the last century we saw an increasing desire for more control over the production environment. This has lead to modern techniques including pesticides, selective breeding, GMO, and artificial fertilizers in their modern form. Indoor farming is a logical extension of this trend. 

Higher Education in Crisis: How Colleges Fail at Vocation

What is Vocation?

One solution that we might hear about is the idea of vocational training. But when we bring up the subject, we usually end up talking about automotive tech schools or welding certifications. We as a society have reduced these fields to “academic consolation prizes” for students who are not “cut out for college”.

The Search for Meaning; How Colleges Are Failing at Mentoring

Colleges are failing at mentoring

In a recent post, I outlined some of the reasons why we need to rethink college education. The system is struggling under widely disparate expectations, climbing tuition rates, and an increasingly disillusioned group of adjunct faculty. At the same time, we are facing a skills gap in which the average age of farmers in America is over 55 years old. One of the first steps I'd like to take is to separate the competing ideals of career development and what former Harvard president Derek Bok calls democratic citizenship.