AGRA'S goal is to help bring about a more sustainable agricultural future. One we can be excited an inspired by.
To do this, AGRA will develop and operate commercial-scale plant factories that take all crops (namely staple crops such as wheat, rice and soy) out of the field and vertically stack them indoors, to mitigate their impact and sustainably produce food on earth and beyond.
(For more details and references, see our white paper)
We're constantly made aware of the problems that face our world and the future that awaits us as a result. What if it didn't have to be this way, what if we could create a future we can be excited for?
Globally, there are serious challenges facing our current agriculture system, sustainability being chief among them.
Crops are responsible for ~10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, ~30% of global water withdrawals, land degradation, habitat loss, species extinction, deforestation and eutrophication. In addition, agriculture faces looming challenges from climate and socio-economic factors as we progress into the future. If we continue on our current path, we put our food supply, water resources and environment at risk.
Taking crops out of the field and into a vertically stacked indoor environment has the ability to address almost all of these challenges in one solution.
Existing controlled environment farms focus on leafy greens and herbs at a premium price point but fail to grow staple crops such as wheat, rice, soy etc. as they are currently too expensive to be grown commercially. However, these crops are responsible for the greatest impacts on our world. They need to be tackled, in a cost effective manor, in order to effectively address agriculture's impacts.
AGRA aims to develop and operate systems that can effectively and economically produce these crop types on earth and beyond.
Currently, AGRA is developing ARVUM, its first commercial-scale system based off the technology it has pioneered in HORTUS, a small-scale home system. ARVUM will further validate AGRA's technology and provide initial revenue for the company that will enable it to develop larger and more ambitious systems.