Farryburg, Minnesota — Lettuce and herbs from Living Greens Farm emerge from holes in tall plastic shelves, nourished by flashing Christmas-colored growing lights and nutrient-rich mist. Leafy greens are never stained and will be chopped shortly after harvest and packed into grocery store salad parcels.

This kind of aeroculture product cultivation business produces products from a small office park warehouse on the outskirts of the town. It may feel like a sterile scientific laboratory, but the company’s CEO quickly argued that growing vegetables in it does not make you a farmer.

“We first treat ourselves as farmers, understand plants and their needs, and use technology to enable growers to make the most of their genetic potential,” said George Pastrana.

Living Greens is one of the backbone of vegetable growers in the Midwest. They are working quickly to establish and expand indoor agriculture, an emerging industry driven by environmental, health and economic issues.

Like any emerging or disruptive technology, as the method improves, many people will try and some will fail. But the significant interest of investors shows the possibilities beyond niche markets.

More than 90% of lettuce and green leafy vegetables in the United States are grown in California and Arizona. As consumers' demand for fresh and healthy food continues to grow, indoor agricultural products account for a small share of the entire market, but they are still growing.

Proponents proposed a series of benefits: reduced demand for land, water, and fertilizer, as water shortages approached, the country’s dependence on growers in the southwestern region decreased, and because of growing food closer to the consumers who bought it. This reduces transportation costs and fuel usage.

"Every year there will be more farms like this," said Natalie Hodal, a vegetable planting expert in the Extension Department of the University of Minnesota. "Not only these large facilities, but also non-profit organizations and the community level-small businesses that are interested in community-scale food production, and involve children in growing food."

A study by Markets and Markets Research in February 2021 estimated that the indoor agricultural technology market would be worth US$14.5 billion in 2020, and it is predicted to grow to US$24.8 billion by 2026.

"Indoor agriculture... is seen as a potential solution to the growing food security problem in the coming years," the report's introduction reads. Certain types of agricultural products—tomatoes, leafy green vegetables, herbs—are particularly suitable for growing inside.

The Owatonna-Faribault corridor along Interstate 35 in southern Minnesota has become a regional hotspot for indoor vegetable production.

Just a few miles from Living Greens Farm is the Owatonna headquarters of Revol Greens, which bills itself as the largest greenhouse lettuce factory in the United States. The company raised US$204 million in venture capital in the second half of 2020. It recently opened a greenhouse in southern California near the center of a field-grown green industry, and the other two plans to open soon in Georgia and Texas.

"We definitely think this is the future," said Brendon Krieg, co-founder and vice president of marketing at Revol Greens. He said the demand for the company's hydroponic lettuce and salad kits has more than doubled in the past 12 months.

Several co-founders of Revol Greens were previously in contact with Bushel Boy, an Owatonna company that has grown tomatoes indoors for 30 years. The company recently started selling strawberries grown in greenhouses.

Living Greens salad sets can be found in grocery stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. However, the company is making ambitious expansion and plans to open four new indoor planting centers in the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and South of the United States by the end of 2023.

Pastrana held the top position at Living Greens last year and is directing the private company to expand nationwide. He explained that there is another Midwest greenhouse under construction outside of Nisota. He said the company will maintain its Faribault business as a research and development base and will soon open a new twin city headquarters.

Pastrana said that investors are increasingly interested in indoor agricultural technology, which is driving private investment and company growth. He said the company employs approximately 60 employees in Faribault, but hopes to have approximately 600 employees nationwide by the end of the expansion.

There are various "ponics" systems for growing indoor vegetables. Hydroponics involves growing agricultural products in a mineral water solution, while air culture hangs plants loosely from a growing shelf and sprays them with water that is also rich in nutrients.

Some start-ups in Minnesota and elsewhere have tried to use another method, the fish-vegetable symbiosis method-raising fish in indoor tanks, fertilizing the water, and recycling it to feed indoor plants. These plants, usually lettuce, then clean the water before it is recycled back to the fish.

Greg Schweser, an extension educator at the University of Minnesota, says these processes show varying degrees of hope to improve the sustainability of food production. But he warned that it may be difficult to do well, especially on a larger scale. He pointed out that in recent years, many indoor planting businesses and urban farm companies have failed to get started.

"In general, this is a difficult start for indoor farming. Perhaps some of these companies that are expanding nationwide have already begun to figure it out," Schweizer said. "It can be said that green plants are a readily available fruit, but we do hope to develop a system that can grow a wider range of crops over time and increase income opportunities for Minnesota farmers throughout the year."

The largest of the three planting rooms at Living Greens has 32 shelves-or what workers call "systems." Each is 56 feet long and can hold approximately 2,000 plants at a time. The harvested vegetables are cut and packaged in another part of the warehouse, and then shipped to the store. Customers usually buy vegetables that were harvested a day or two ago.

Revol Greens promises a similar shift. Both companies sell products at prices comparable to similar products from food giants such as Dole and Chiquita.

For every successful business operation in Minnesota, dozens of non-profit organizations, educational institutions, small entrepreneurs, urban farmers, and hobbyists grow agricultural products and other plants in greenhouses and planting rooms.

In Greensted near Zumbrota, workers grow miniature vegetables in a small shed and sell them directly to Lunds & Byerlys. In Tower, a member of Chippewa's Bois Forte band gave up her career as an architect in New York City and returned to northern Minnesota to form Harvest Nation with her sister and daughter.

Harvest Nation is seeking investors to support an aeroculture farm, hoping to provide the tribal community with a better choice of agricultural products. Founder Denise Pieratos once said that there had been talks about building a farm underground in the Soudan mine, but now they are looking for warehouse space.

"Compared to other bookings in the state, the incidence of diabetes in my booking is twice that of other bookings," Pieratos said. "This is a huge motivation for us to grow locally affordable food throughout the year, and we can deliver to them every week."

Fact box: different types of "ponics"

Three related technical systems are used to grow plants indoors without soil, which is becoming more and more common in places such as Minnesota, where it was previously impossible to grow leafy vegetables year-round.

Hydroponics: Plants grow in water treated with nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Aeroponics: Plants grow without soil and are not immersed in water. Instead, they continuously recycle nutrient-rich water for spraying through the system.

Fish and vegetable symbiosis: Plants and fish grow together in the water, creating a mutually beneficial environment of closed cycle fertilization and clean water.

Patrick Condon reports on agriculture for Star Tribune. After serving as a reporter for the Associated Press for more than a decade, he has been working for the Star Tribune since 2014.

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