January 2022 - 1

Revolution Farms
continues to expand
greenhouses
Reduced insecticide,
IPM programs are key
High-Tech Tools
2022
8
14
20
AppHarvest grows
indoors for tomatoes,
other produce
January 2022 | Volume 56 |
Issue 1
High-tech organic
Soli Organic thrives at indoor, in-dirt
organic growing of herbs, greens
Soli Organic's new corporate name and brand is derived from the Latin word for soil and reflects the pivotal role of soil in enabling the company's mission to make low-cost,
high-quality, organic produce grown nearby available to everyone. Photos: Soii Organic
By Doug Ohlemeier
VGN Correspondent
Sustainability and technology help Soli
Organic Inc., more efficiently grow and
ship a wide variety of fresh and
locally-grown organic produce from
indoor controlled environment agriculture
(CEA) operations. Soli has developed one
of the nation's largest commercial indoor
organic growing systems.
Formerly known as Shenandoah
Growers, the Rockingham, Virginia,
company changed its name in late
October. The rebranding should help Soli,
which markets itself as one of the leading
U.S. growers and marketers of indoorgrown
fresh organic culinary herbs and
leafy greens, provide sustainable, 100%
USDA certified organic, regionally grown
produce to more consumers.
Soli markets its products, which
include organic lettuces, microgreens
and purees, under the That's Tasty
Pure Organic Flavor label. More than
20,000 supermarket retailers carry Soli's
products.
A philosophy of growing
Soli's growing practices are planted in
a philosophy that employs proprietary
crop production methods that help the
grower produce
CEA products at
affordable prices.
" While there
are a number
of companies
working to grow
food indoors, it
can be a costly
enterprise,
forcing many to
charge a premium
for their products, " said Ulf Jönsson,
chief technology officer. " At Soli, we've
been able to create efficiencies that
enable us to grow food indoors at scale
and sell our organic herbs and greens
affordably - often at the same price
point as conventional alternatives. "
Soli's roots began with USDA-certified
ULF JÖNSSON
organic field agriculture. The company
was founded in 1989 as Shenandoah.
Around 2010, it began to transition from
outdoor field to controlled-environment
production, the first produce category
leader to do so, according to Soli. Soli
See SOLI, page 5
Pure Green Farms' indoor-outdoor
approach works well in broad market
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
Another year passes, and with it, a
steady stream of news about greenhouses
and other controlled environment
agriculture (CEA) operations opening in
the East.
But it would be a mistake to see them
as competition to traditional open-field
growers. In reality, greenhouses like
Pure Green Farms in South Bend,
Indiana, see themselves as supporting
the flow of field-grown leafy greens
grown en masse in the West.
" We'll never replace field-grown
California, Arizona lettuce, " said Jim
Marcum, vice president of sales at Pure
Green Farms. " But we certainly can
supplement each other. "
Knowing their place
A staff of 30 people working at
the four-acre greenhouse grows
2 million pounds of lettuce a year,
Marcum said. The hydroponic
greenhouse uses a nutrient-film
technique, to flow nutrient-filled water
over the roots of the plants. The plants
can be separated as they grow, giving
them a nice European-style lettuce
profile. Due to the location in the
Midwest, the sunlight is supplemented
with artificial lights - mostly LEDs, but
also a few high-pressure sodium lights,
Marcum said.
The farm operation, which celebrated its
first harvest in March 2020, was built as an
investment of Ceres Partners, a specialist
investment manager focused exclusively
See CEA, page 7

January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2022