While turmoil and upheaval can be unnerving, they can also be instrumental in driving innovation… which, ultimately, leads to learning how to do things better. What it comes down to, we think, is making the choice to see opportunities rather than lament what has been lost. The last few years have tried our global food supply, and impacted costs greatly… we’re now dealing with reduced labor availability, increased transportation costs, and changes in consumer demand.

So how do we find opportunities in the changes? We do a few things… we look at how to make the entire process of growing, storing, and distributing food cheaper, get back to basics by supporting local growers, work toward a more sustainable process, and we work to build resilience into the food system, rather than always rushing immediately toward scale… and we have found a group of folks who have decided to run at these hurdles head-on, a company that specializes in indoor vertical farming called Plenty.

Plenty excites us because they have developed a completely new way to grow their plants, by growing in 3D vertical towers nearly two stories high rather than trying to mimic flat planes indoors. This allows the company to automate the growing process, from planting to harvest, and to grow more food in less space. They’ve opened their first farm in Compton, California called the Plenty Compton Farm… and these innovative folks plan to bring affordable food to their community.

In a single city block, Plenty Compton Farm will grow up to 4.5 million pounds of leafy greens a year… to put that into perspective, that’s up to 350 times the yield per acre versus conventional farming methods. Truly, they are showing us that just because something has been done a certain way, that doesn’t make it better… it just makes it what we did once. So, we’ll be excitedly watching this venture to see how it helps the local economy, not only with food, but with jobs.

For a moment, let’s talk about what sustainable indoor farming is, and why it matters. Obviously, it’s a method of growing food indoors, but it’s a lot more than that… we think it’s the next evolution of food. We don’t think that’s a stretch, given the fact that scorched earth seems to be the plan of the weather for the next little bit… it’s hot, and things are changing, and we have to change with them. Indoor sustainable farming is one way to do that.

That’s because sustainable indoor farming is more efficient than growing in fields all the way around, by using less water, energy, and land. Usually, these farms are going to use either hydroponics or aquaponics for growing. Hydroponics simply means without soil… instead of soil, plants get a nutrient-rich solution. Aquaponics, on the other hand, is a method of growing plants and fish together so that the little fish provide nutrients for plants, and the plants filter the water for the fish in exchange.

The company we’re looking at this week is called Gotham Greens, and they specialize in sustainable indoor farming using aeroponics, which is a soilless method like hydroponics. Because they utilize this method, it allows them to grow year-round without pesticides or herbicides (and let’s be honest, we’re all a little sick of the chemicals). But don’t worry, their method still uses 95% less water than traditional farming.

In the fall of last year, the company raised $310 million in Series E funding, which was led by BMO Impact Fund and Ares Management Fund. This puts the company at $440 million in funds raised since launch in 2009. Gotham is already known for being a pioneer in indoor farming technology and was one of the first indoor farming companies to raise significant funding. The company already operates in nine states, and they hope to expand and make acquisitions to continue on their growth trajectory.

But let’s not forget the most important element to this… and that’s reconnecting with food. These newfangled indoor farms are about more than just yields, emissions, and efficiency. They are also about restoring some of our lost connections to food, which has been a cultural staple for folks around the world for as long as we’ve had documented history. This type of farming rips the crops back up from “out there” lands, where they sit apart from human hands so often, and plants them firmly back into communities.

Indoor farms will continue to crop up, we can guarantee it… and many of them are touting this return to a human connection with food. Like Square Roots, a New York-based company growing greens inside shipping containers vertically. Not only does this allow them to control every aspect of growing, shielded from the elements, it allows them to bring sustainable, freshly farmed products to urban areas, which is greatly needed… don’t even get us started on food deserts. Come back next week, we’ll have more from the IPO space.