What are Food Miles?
And how are these 3 startups reducing it?
To get on your plate, food has to travel.
The distance it travels, from the place it is grown (usually a farm) to your plate is known as Food Miles.
The longer the journey, the higher the impact on the environment. Transporting food over long distances generates great quantities of CO2 emissions.
It is estimated that we currently put almost 10 kcal of fossil fuel energy into our food system for every 1 kcal of energy we get as food.🤯
These emissions go up if it’s shipped by faster modes. Airfreight generates 50 times more CO2 than sea shipping.
Let’s see how these 3 startups are helping the environment by reducing the food miles⬇️
UK imports 45% of its vegetables…and a vast majority of it comes from the EU. During the winter months, when Britain cannot grow its own produce, it imports 90% of the lettuce consumed. For tomatoes and fresh fruits, this goes up to 95%. During COVID, thousands of iceberg lettuces were duly shipped to the UK from Los Angeles!
Localized indoor farms are a great alternative…but they can’t compete with the scale of traditional agriculture. And that’s where agritech startup LettUs Grow comes in. By combining a novel aeroponic system (growing plants without soil) with farm management software, it improves the efficiency, sustainability and ROI of indoor farming.
Crops are grown using water-conserving, nutrient-dense mists instead of soil in greenhouse and vertical farms.
These farms do not need any fertile land to operate and do not use any pesticides. (bottom left image- noticed the missing soil?)
The farm management software makes the entire system automatable, allowing farmers to trace the crops from seed to scale.
No fertile land needed to grow crops… and that reduces the dependency of crops on external factors like location and climate. Using this technology, indoor farms can grow consistent, predictable and climate-resilient food supply throughout the year. If scaled efficiently, the technology will solve food wastage and sustainability concerns.
Convoluted journey…Being a tropical country, India is one of the world’s dominant food producers. But the fresh produce passes several hands(wholesalers, aggregators, retailers) before it reaches the final customer. The food loses its freshness during the journey, leading to higher food wastage along with high food miles. As it’s hard to trace the source of the produce, it’s difficult to measure the chemicals that have gone into its production.
Remember Farmville?…Bengaluru-based Farmizen connects urbanites to farmers. Through an app, urbanites can rent a mini farm and grow chemical-free vegetables. The customers choose the vegetables on the app and the farmer grows them.
Customers rent out a mini-farm with 12 raised beds around the city. On the app, they choose the crops to be grown on each bed.
Farmers take care of all the crops chosen by the customer using natural farming methods (no chemicals).
Farmizen takes care of the distribution, marketing, inputs and know-how.
Goodbye middlemen…The concept not only helps urban buyers trace their food but also helps farmers get a regular higher income. Through crowdsourced audits and drones, Farmizen keeps a check against violations. Customers can visit their farms anytime and harvest their produce or get it delivered to their doorstep.
I need my strawberry smoothie every morning…Customers have got into the habit of expecting all fruits and vegetables all year round. During spring and winter, most of the US, Northern Europe and Canada imports fresh fruits and vegetables to cater to the customer's need. Due to a short growing season, Canada imports ~65% of its fresh fruits and vegetables, mostly from the US and Mexico. This directly adds to the food miles.
Grow food in your furniture…To shorten these supply chains, Canada-based Just Vertical is promoting urban farming. Through indoor hydroponic farming (the science of soil-less gardening), it provides fresh, affordable, and pesticide-free produce year-round.
Customers can purchase their modern hydroponic garden system, which also doubles up as a wood cabinet. (right image below)
The seed pod has to be put in the system and the herbs, fruits and veggies grow in a water and nutrient solution. (bottom left image below)
It uses up to 99% less water, the fruits and vegetables grow on an average two weeks faster than outdoor agriculture and uses little to no pesticides.
Pluck it and eat it…The AEVA can grow up to 10 lbs(~4.5kg) of produce per month. Over 200 varieties of plants including herbs, leafy greens, tomatoes, strawberries and more can be grown on a monthly basis. Last year, in the 3rd episode of Epic, I had spoken to Co-Founder Conner Tidd👇🏽
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