How 80 Acres Farms took root in a difficult industry
By Joe Frye
In May 2016, The New York Times published a special report on a potential solution to “a staggering challenge: feeding the 7 billion-plus people in the world.” Vertical farming, the article said, was “more theoretical than practical.”
Early players in the industry faltered by overpromising, but 80 Acres Farms, a vertical farming company based in Hamilton, Ohio, took a more grounded approach. The company was founded by Mike Zelkind and Tisha Livingston in 2015. Both came from other sectors of the food industry. It was this that allowed them to approach their new business with an understanding of food systems and its pitfalls.
“They recognized not only fundamental issues with the food system, but also that it was under a new kind of pressure from climate change and global disruptions,” says Jed Portman, senior manager of Public Affairs at the company. “The company started with the question, ‘If we could redesign the food system from scratch, what would it look like?’”
To answer this question, Zelkind and Livingston traveled to the Netherlands, a nation renowned for its greenhouse technology and status as a global agricultural leader. They noted both strengths and shortcomings in Dutch greenhouse methods, then learned from Japanese companies advancing vertical farming after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. “What our founders did was bring these technologies together,” says Portman. Bringing these technologies back to Ohio, 80 Acres began growing produce indoors.
Today, the mission of 80 Acres is still to produce sustainably grown food indoors for as many people as possible. Although the company is proud of its technology, 80 Acres emphasizes flavor and quality. “We love to talk about the benefits of our technology,” says Portman. “But when it comes down to it, what matters is feeding people delicious produce.”
While it is arguable whether or not 80 Acres’ tomatoes are the cream of the crop, Portman highlights some numbers in the farm’s mission to be more sustainable than the average farm. According to Portman, 80 Acres uses 95% less water per pound of produce than the average farmer, while growing it in facilities that are run by 100% renewable energy. All this information is fact checked by a fulltime head of sustainability who vets all the information 80 Acres uses in its marketing. “There’s no greenwashing going on at our company,” Portman says. “We’re allergic to big claims without data behind them.”
While Portman and the rest of 80 Acres are proud of what the company has achieved in a decade of existence, Portman says the goal continues to be to get produce to as many customers as possible. A recent merger between 80 Acres and Soli Organic, another indoor farming company, will bring 80 Acres to grocery stores across the country, serving 17,000 stores.
With this expansion, though, Portman says 80 Acres still aims to grow its plants locally. “The goal is to build a network,” Portman says of the company’s plan to open facilities near where its produce will later be sold. “We’re not in any way replacing the work that Ohio farmers are doing. We are replacing produce that’s coming in from California and beyond. We’re bringing that back home,” he says. “I think this has the potential to be another green revolution.”