This document summarizes a study on vertical farming. It defines vertical farming as producing food in vertically stacked layers using indoor farming and controlled environments. It discusses some pitfalls like taking on too many tasks, overlooking high labor costs, and not treating the farm like an efficient process. It provides estimates on the potential market size and lists some market leaders. It also gives examples of vertical farming in Canada and discusses the role of technology, data, AI, and investments in the industry.

1. Study – Vertical Farming –
June 2021
Paul Young CPA, CGA
June 21, 2021

2. Paul Young - Bio
• CPA, CGA
• Academia (PF1, FA4, FN2, MU1. and MS2)
• SME – Risk Management
• SME – Close, Consolidate and Reporting
• SME – Public Policy
• SME – Emerging Technology
• SME – Business Process Change
• SME – Financial Solutions
• SME – Macro/Micro Indicators
• SME – Supply Chain Management
• SME – Data, AI, Security, and Platform
• SME – Internal Controls and Auditing
Contact information: Paul_Young_CGA@hotmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-young-055632b/
SlideShare - https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga

3. Agenda
• What is Vertical Farming
• Pitfalls to Vertical Farming
• Potential Market Size
• Market Leaders
• Examples
• Key Investments

4. What is Vertical Farming
Source - Wikipedia
is the practice of producing food in vertically stacked
layers, such as in a skyscraper, used warehouse, or
shipping container. The modern ideas of vertical
farming use indoor farming techniques and controlled-
environment agriculture (CEA) technology, where all
environmental factors can be controlled.

7. Market Potential
Source - https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-vertical-
farming-market

8. Pitfalls to Vertical Farming
Source - https://www.maximumyield.com/top-3-reasons-why-vertical-farms-fail/2/3177
1. They try to do too many things at once. - A common pitfall of many vertical farms is attempting to
both grow food for market while productizing and selling the technology they’re using to grow their
food.
2. They forget that labor is always the biggest cost. Reflecting on their own shuttered operations, each
of the three panelists echoed this warning about labor: Don’t overlook your labor costs. All three
panelists express similar challenges regarding the workers on their respective farms. While the wages
were relatively low (ranging from $9-15 per hour), labor costs added up quickly thanks to the farms’
growing techniques
3. They don’t treat the farm like a process. - In today’s technology-based modern
farming world, production is not the problem. Growing in controlled environments
and with proper plant nutrition allows modern farmers to produce crops with
astounding consistency and quality. Instead, the real issue these three farmers faced
was how to run their growing operations efficiently while minimizing cost.

9. IOT Market
Leaders
• http://www.fox34.com/story/35300702/global-internet-of-things-iot-market-2017-size-share-
development-status-type-and-application-segmentation-forecast-by-2023

10. Companies / Vertical Farming
Source - https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/05/17/986832/0/en/Vertical-Farming-Market-to-exceed-13bn-by-2024-Global-Market-
Insights-Inc.html
Market Leaders
• General Hydroponics
• Aerofarms
• Plantagon International AB
• Urban Crop Solutions
• Sky Greens, Green Spirit Farms,
• Spread co Ltd
• Mirai Co.Ltd.
• American Hydroponics etc.
OEM Equipment:
• EVERLIGHT
ELECTRONICS CO.,
LTD (Taiwan)
• illumitex (Texas),
• Koninklijke Philips NV
(Netherlands).

11. Canada and Vertical Farming
Source - http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/vertical-farming-a-game-changer-for-manitoba-first-nation-1.2932551
An innovative farming method typically used in big cities has been introduced in an
isolated First Nations community in northern Manitoba to help cultivate fresh and
affordable fruits and vegetables.
Vertical farming arrived in the Opaskwayak Cree First Nation, one of Manitoba’s largest
reserves, in February. Unlike traditional farming, vertical farming brings the process
indoors and allows a person to control environmental variables, such as light and
water, to speed up the process.
For the remote community where a container of strawberries sells for $18 and
residents often can’t afford healthy foods, vertical farming is considered a major step
forward

12. North York - Farming
Source - https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/09/05/indoor-
farm-thrives-in-north-york-industrial-unit.html
Jonah Krochmalnek is a 26-year-old farmer. He pulls up to work every day ready to plant, tend and harvest
a variety of organic greens and herbs.
He produces loads, too. In a given year — he doesn’t have to worry about seasons on his farm —
Krochmalnek estimates he could grow 16,000 kilograms of pea shoots, if they were his only crop.
Living Earth Farms, the company Krochmalnek started four years ago is no ordinary farm.
That’s because it isn’t on a remote country road where plants have space to stretch out and soak up
sunlight, but in an unassuming, 2,300-square-foot industrial unit in North York, the same area where
Krochmalnek grew up and lives still.
Living Earth is an indoor, vertical farm where crops grow in stacked rows seven layers high with special red
and blue LED lights designed for optimal growing conditions shining down on them. It’s the first of its kind
to be organic certified in Ontario.

13. Canada and Land Tenure
Source – Stats Canada

14. Canada and AG Operations
Source – Stats Canada

15. CRA and Farmers
Source - http://www.producer.com/2017/08/tax-changes-
impact-could-be-humongous/
The changes to incorporated farms include:
• rules to make it more difficult and risky for full-time farmers to share farm
income with spouses and children;
• regulations that could make it dangerous to use farm earnings to help pay
for children’s post-secondary education;
• rules that discourage farms from renting out their land or saving cash
within a farm company;
• changes that could make it risky to divide ownership of a family farm’s land
base among a number of children, while allowing the land block to remain
intact;
• rules that encourage farmers to sell their land to neighbours or strangers
rather than their own children.

16. Agenda 2030 - Farming
Source - https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/agriculture-holds-key-to-un-sustainable-development-goals/
Transforming the global agricultural system in order to adjust to the modern needs
and feed the world is a lengthy process that will take years, if not decades. This is
why agri-food giants like Syngenta, Unilever and Monsanto have also taken a
long-term approach to tackling these challenges.
Most agri-food giants have set up partnerships with farmers aiming to ensure the
sustainable sourcing of their products and raw materials, taking account of
environmental, social and economic considerations at the same time.
Farmers act under specific “code” rules for cultivation and production while
participating in the schemes on a voluntary basis.

17. Plastics / Greenhouses
China is using tunnel farming technology to grow vegetables all year round. Video shows what type of tunnel farming
methodology being used by China. The use of this technology at scale is also being applied in Egypt and other countries.
China has covered about 3% of its farmland (4 million hectares out of 128 million hectares of arable land) with plastic sheeting
for plastic greenhouses. These greenhouse farms produce 35% of China’s vegetables. China covered about 1 million hectares of
farmland in each year from 2013 to 2017.
Most of the greenhouses in China are more loosely covered with plastic sheeting over farmland. This sheeting can make the
land about 10 times more productive than the same area of regular farmland.
China is planning to have over 2 million hectares of greenhouse buildings by 2025 with mechanized-automation of farming.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Monday issued a guideline to promote the country’s facility-based agricultural
planting, outlining goals for infrastructure upgrades and mechanization to boost output and farmers’ income. By 2025, China
will maintain over 2 million hectares of facilities, including plastic greenhouses, and achieve above 50 percent mechanization
for facility-based planting, a sector of the so-called controlled-environment agriculture (CEA), or protected agriculture.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/03/plastic-greenhouses-provide-35-of-chinas-
vegetables.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fadvancednano+%28n
extbigfuture%29

18. Blog – AG and Technology
The agriculture sector continues to embrace data, AI, platform, and security as part of managing all aspects of their
operations. AI is driving crop yields, sustainable farming practices, weather analytics, etc. as part of improving the
productivity of a farm. https://www.slideshare.net/paulyoungcga/farming-and-agricultural-equipment-june-2021

19. Technology solutions and Vertical Farming
• AG solutions - https://newsroom.ibm.com/2019-05-22-IBM-AI-and-
Cloud-Technology-Helps-Agriculture-Industry-Improve-the-Worlds-
Food-and-Crop-Supply
• Weather API - https://www.ibm.com/weather/industries/agriculture
• Sales Planning - https://www.ibm.com/products/planning-
analytics/sales-planning

20. Data, AI, Security, and Platform
• Smart farming - https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ai-and-robotics-
are-helping-optimize-farms-to-increase-productivity-and-crop-yields/
• Weather data and Cognos Analytics - https://pmsquare.com/analytics-
blog/2020/8/10/weather-data-in-cognos-analytics
• Food security - https://financialpost.com/telecom/telus-embargo

21. Key Investment
Source - https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/11/softbank-and-bezos-backed-vertical-farm-startup-has-global-expansion-
plans.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fadvancednano+%28nextbigfuture
%29
Plenty is a startup that has big vertical farming expansion plans $226
million in total venture funding. They plan to build a 100,000 square foot
(2.3 acres) vertical-farming warehouse this year in Washington state
outside of Seattle. That farm is expected to produce 4.5 million pounds of
greens annually.
Plenty grows plants on 20-foot high towers with vertical irrigation
channels and facing LED lights.
In June 2017, California-based vertical farming company Plenty,
previously See Jane Farm, acquired Bright Agrotech in an effort to reach
“field-scale.”