Modern Hydroponic Production: Why The Right People Are All Wrong More To Successful Growing Than Just Productivity? After a busy weekend drawing up half a dozen wiring schematics for several new farms we’re putting in, I came home a little grumpy to a sick baby girl, and half a dozen notifications regarding a LinkedIn Thread I’d recently commented on. In passing, I’d mentioned that our equipment was seeing great results with strawberry production, and immediately one of the LinkedIn experts chimed in to challenge my claims.
The conversation developed, with a number of folks (very smart, with lots of experience) jumping in, centering the debate squarely on the idea of productivity. The problem was (and what was most frustrating for me, as the object of the discussion), they were all debating the wrong thing. Productivity is not the most important consideration.*
Follow our company on LinkedIn
A Completely New Approach Let me clarify. ZipGrow towers are significantly more productive than horizontal agriculture- no questions there. But this is NOT why people should use towers, and it’s not the only thing people should think about when starting a commercial hydroponic or aquaponic venture. People should use towers not because they are more productive, but because they approach production and more importantly, distribution from an entirely different angle. Here’s how…
The Tale of Farmer Joe
Learn more about the new age farmer in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwquu0xoRbE&feature=youtu.be) Farmer Joe runs a Hydroponic Greenhouse. His operating costs might look something like this: (Note: This is just a made up budget, for better numbers read my dissertation.)
Energy: 15% of total costs Supplies: 7% of total costs Water: 5% of total costs Labor: 60% of total costs Packaging and Marketing: 8% of total costs Insurance: 2% of total costs Miscellaneous: 3% of total costs
Now this budget could be fairly different depending on his business model, crop, location, etc., but there are some numbers that I guarantee will be the same almost no matter what: Labor and Packaging/Marketing. This is almost 70% of the total operating cost. The post-harvest portion of this is typically around 60%. Sixty Percent!
What’s the big deal? So what’s the big deal you ask? Here’s the big deal: We’re thinking about this budget, and how we make money ALL WRONG.
Production Obsession… Where Does It Get You? Traditionalists are obsessed with production. Essentially, they’ve been taught their entire careers that the way to compete with the greenhouse next door was more production, more efficient production, economies of scale savings, etc. etc. It’s why we have
so many huge greenhouse production corporations in the world. They’re fighting tooth and nail for the smallest piece of the pie. As you get bigger, yes, you save a small percentage on many of these costs, but by and large, you’re building your economic advantage by maximizing output as a function of your smallest operational costs:
Energy Insurance Miscellaneous Some Supplies
For every head of lettuce you produce, your other costs stay almost the same. Sure, you can carve 2 or 3 or maybe even 5 or 6% off of that big old 60% investment in manpower and clamshell packaging, but 6% of 60% is only 3.6% of your total cost. A small advantage at best. The industry has become so myopic that they believe that this is the lowest hanging fruit they have to fight for. They’re wrong.
Waste, Waste and More Waste 60% of your cost is a huge number. If you are a grocery store buying a head of lettuce wholesale for $1.00, you are essentially paying 60 cents for labor, plastic, stickers and cardboard. Talk about a waste of money. When I saw this a decade ago, all I saw was waste. Waste in landfills, waste in unused product, spoilage, and waste in handling (the source of much foodborne illness). This means that at the end of the day, the consumer pays more for what equates to landfill space and higher disease risk. I don’t know about you, but I want more value for my money.
“U.S. Lets 141 Trillion Calories Of Food Go To Waste Each Year” by ELIZA BARCLAY
Our Approach: Reduce Waste, Add Value So we did something about it. You see, while the industry was out there squabbling over crumbs worth 5%, 6%, 7%, obsessively fixated on “Production! Production! Production!” we hacked most of that 60% right out of our budget. That’s right. Instead of spending $100K a year on operational costs, Joe Farmer now only spends $45K-$55K per year. While the industry was chasing it’s tail, we chopped most of that 60% right out of our operating budget. And let me tell you: That’s a big deal.
Bright Agrotech’s Farming Manifesto I believe that whenever a business can deliver more value to everyone that it works with, that business will almost always succeed. That’s the ideal right? I build something beautiful and it helps me, it helps you, it helps everyone. Virtuous cycle. Positive feedback loop. In this case, by chopping the packaging, the labor, and the transportation out of the budget, I make more money, the grocery store makes more money and has less waste, and customers get a better, healthier, tastier product. We do this by using ZipGrow towers to transport produce to market live. Consumers at the market essentially perform all of this postharvest labor and packaging for us. Traditional producers have costs that scale with them, almost perfectly. It’s a brutal, almost linear relationship subject to diminishing returns. Our model simply doesn’t have those costs.
Living displays create value across the entire distribution chain. This is why it’s impossible to talk with traditionalists about what we do. They want to split hairs on the topic of production efficiency, while frankly, we could care less. Don’t misinterpret me, our towers are more efficient, that’s not the point. It never was, and as far as I’m concerned, it never should be. Sure we can cram a lot of production into a very small space, but all of the production in the world doesn’t matter if your costs scale with it.
Upstart Farmer’s Are Feeling The Change We’re building new farms every month now. Farmers are growing, making money and expanding at a rate that is tough to keep up with. For the last three years we’ve sent out 10 times as many towers as we did the year before. People are making money, enriching their community and getting excited about food, all because the model works. All because the model frees them from the tooth and nail constraints of traditional hydroponic production. That’s I something I can make time for.
I’m pretty sure that that LinkedIn thread is still trudging onward, with the participants challenging and arguing and talking about Production. I’m sure they’ll still be debating and arguing long after the supermarkets are full of excited customers buying live produce, after my sick little girl gets better, after our farmers take market after market from the big, production focused firms. It’s like the dinosaurs sitting around arguing about who’s the fittest, while the small, industrious mammals are quietly doing their thing, watching the storm clouds roll in, and feeling the change. For more information, Visit http://verticalfoodblog.com/modernhydroponic-production-why-the-right-people-are-all-wrong/