greenhub

From Monitoring to Control: Smarter Greenhouse Management

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 12:15:32 +0000

Your greenhouse computer knows everything, but can it act on it? Most greenhouse computers do a great job of showing what’s happening, temperature, humidity, CO₂, irrigation, but not at doing anything with that information.

If you want to adjust your irrigation strategy, change a lighting schedule, or test a new climate setting, it often means calling a technician, waiting for days, or navigating a complex interface. That costs time, money, and sometimes valuable opportunities for your crops.

And if you work with an advisor or researcher, their recommendations usually end up in Excel sheets or PDF reports that never connect to your control system. The computer records, but it doesn’t respond.

The result? You have the data, but not the control. You want to anticipate, prevent issues, and optimize your crops proactively yet too often you’re stuck reacting and correcting day after day. So why is it still so hard to turn insights into action?

Why It’s Still So Complicated

Most greenhouses operate with multiple systems for lighting, irrigation, and climate, each with its own software, logic, and sometimes even its own units of measurement. These systems rarely communicate with each other.

The outcome: your data stays locked in separate silos, comparisons are difficult, and small adjustments become unnecessarily complex. Even simple experiments, like testing a slightly higher temperature during the night or a new irrigation rhythm, require planning, coordination, and sometimes compromise.

This fragmentation keeps greenhouses in a reactive loop: you can see what’s happening, but taking action is slow, cumbersome, or even impossible without external support.

The Shift to Adaptive and Preventative Growing

Greenhouse technology is evolving. The sector is moving from monitoring toward management, from passive observation to adaptive, preventative control.

The new standard? Open systems that allow you to connect equipment from different suppliers, compare settings, and adjust conditions yourself, without waiting for outside help. These systems are designed to empower you, the grower, not replace you.

In this future vision, your greenhouse becomes anticipative. It doesn’t just respond after the fact, it uses past decisions, real-time measurements, and predictive insights to act before stress or inefficiency occurs. Every adjustment builds toward a smarter strategy: watering schedules respond to plant needs, lights adjust to growth stages, and climate changes support crop goals before any negative impact arises.

Imagine a greenhouse where your systems foresee changes in weather, energy costs, or crop development, automatically suggesting or implementing optimal adjustments. Instead of reacting to problems, you’re always one step ahead, your greenhouse becomes a partner in strategic growth.

One Platform, All Systems

This is where GreenFarm OS from greenhub comes in. It links your existing climate computer, sensors, and controllers in a single platform.

No new hardware is needed, just one interface where you can see, compare, and control everything. You decide when to change irrigation timing, temperature setpoints, or light intensity, and the system executes your decisions immediately.

For instance, if your advisor suggests changing CO₂ strategy, you can now apply it instantly. No waiting, no technician. The result is clear: less downtime, faster decisions, and a better understanding of what truly works for your crops.

Data You Can Trust, Insights You Can Use

We also take care of your data. It’s stored safely, the way you feel most comfortable, with full control in your hands. Even offline, your insights remain accessible, allowing continuous optimization without interruption.

GreenFarm OS focuses on crop monitoring while staying compatible with the partners and tools you already trust. That means your workflow stays familiar, only smarter.

Why It Matters

It’s not about collecting more data, it’s about making the data you already have actionable, comparable, and traceable.

When your greenhouse can anticipate your goals, respond intelligently, and implement strategies before problems arise, you gain time to focus on what matters most: growing better crops, creating new strategies, and preventing issues before they occur.

Instead of maintenance, your greenhouse becomes a strategic partner, one that helps you optimize results, foresee challenges, and continuously improve your crop strategy.

This is the future of greenhouse control: proactive, adaptive, and anticipative growing, where every decision builds on the last and every system works in harmony with your expertise.

Read the full whitepaper: Bridging the Data Divide – Building a Common Standard for CEA

Discover how growers across Europe are moving from monitoring to adaptive control in our whitepaper and learn more about the impact of sensor placement and interpreting results from other farms, -Dynamic CO2 dosing and how indoor farms and greenhouse differ in strategy, also HPS vs LEDs where is the difference.

Growing is Hard. So, Who’s Doing It Next?

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 09:59:22 +0000

When you picture a farmer in Europe, who comes to mind? Most likely an older man living in the countryside and the statistics confirm it. Nearly 68.4% of farm managers in the EU are male, while 31.6% are female, even though women’s share has grown from 26.4% in 2005 (Eurostat, 2020). This means that when someone searches for a farmer online, the images rarely show women, nearly one third of farms are being managed by women in europe.

Depending on the country, this picture can look very different: in Lithuania and Latvia almost half of farms are managed by women, while in Malta and Germany it’s fewer than one in ten (Eurostat, 2020). Age adds another layer to the story. The average farm manager is 57 years old, with 57.6% aged 55 or older, and just 11.9% under 40 (Eurostat, 2020; Eurostat, 2023). In other words, the farmer you imagined at the start isn’t just a stereotype; it’s today’s reality. At greenhub, we are aware that we currently reflect the status quo of agriculture. A male-dominated team that wants to bring about change and lead by example?

Globally, the FAO reports that 43% of farm workforce are women (FAO: The role of women in agriculture, 2011), yet when you search online for “farmer” or “farm manager,” images of women are still rare. At greenhub, we’re part of that redefinition, too. We know that our own team and network don’t yet reflect the full diversity that agriculture deserves. But we’re working on it by opening new entry points, collaborating across disciplines, and amplifying stories that challenge traditional images of who a farmer is.

The mismatch between perception and reality matters, especially as farming faces a perfect storm: fewer farmers overall, disappearing knowledge, and growing pressure on food systems. The question of who will produce our food naturally arises when you see the figures below.

Fewer young people are stepping into agriculture, regardless of gender. The sector has a reputation problem: it doesn’t look like an appealing career. Why? Because farming today is often seen as isolating, financially unstable, and incredibly demanding. It requires deep knowledge and experience that’s hard to acquire unless you grow up in it.

Losing the Farmer, Losing the Knowledge

When you visit a grower, you rarely see a grower B, a younger one in training. In bigger operations with multiple growing locations, when you ask how old the growers are at that location, you rarely hear someone below 50. In a few years these top growers and talented people will retire, and it is nearly impossible to train someone new into the job without being worked in for at least 3 years, to make decisions on your own based on intuition, this was told to us by a chicory company. One of the most profound threats to agriculture today isn’t just climate change or global trade pressure. It’s the loss of people. Human capital, the knowledge and experience that farmers carry with them, is disappearing fast (Farmer-led Research on Europe’s Full Productivity | EARA, 2025).

When older farmers retire, they don’t just leave their land. They take with them decades of experience, intuition, and practical wisdom that can’t be captured in textbooks or software (Generational renewal in EU agriculture, 2025). This “tacit knowledge” is essential for sustainable land management and for adapting to climate change (Generational renewal in EU agriculture, 2025). Lack of access to this knowledge is a major reason young people do not pursue a career as farmers. Even though theoretical knowledge is reportedly higher than ever, practical knowledge is lacking and causes insecurity (Generational renewal in EU agriculture, 2025).

What is this tacit knowledge exactly, and why is it so hard to capture with AI? In traditional environments, especially in the open field or in greenhouses that are not fully controlled, farm management is complex and highly site-specific. The environmental context is decisive and changes every minute, sometimes every second (Farmer Intuition Improves Management Decisions, 2023). Success depends on adapting to shifting conditions that cannot be fully represented by standardized models, let alone directly reflected in impact.

A tangible example: how much has higher wind impacted my transpiration if it didn’t rain? Are my roots long enough to access the groundwater today, or am I losing a valuable growing day by not irrigating right now? Farmers often face situations where decisions must be made too quickly for detailed calculations, relying instead on intuition and accumulated experience to manage risks in a constantly changing environment.

This kind of learning includes practical details such as how soil and climate conditions ultimately shape productivity more than technology or capital; how keeping a soil cover improves water retention and stabilizes temperatures; or how to choose crop varieties that are adapted to local growing conditions. It also involves the knowledge shared through farmer-led breeding and seed exchange (Adapting to Smart Farming: Communication Media and Local Knowledge in Overcoming Technical Challenges, 2024). While formal education may provide formulas for irrigation, in practice success often comes down to knowing the best moment in the day to irrigate, and how much, depending on wind, temperature, clouds, and shade. These subtle but constant adjustments are what allow experienced farmers to maintain healthy, productive systems.

Why Automation Is Not the Enemy

For many, the idea of automation in farming raises alarm bells. We understand this, too many times farmers and growers have been asked to give their data away. For it to be sold back to them later, with insights on top, often inapplicable and not in the right context. While their data is being used for free to train AI tools, only to have to chat with a chatbot later that is not helpful either. We are delighted Laura that you came to talk to us. They are fed up churn on AI solutions is rising due to this inhuman way of handling problems, and it raises the question “what is the AI even supposed to think about for me?” (Fruit logistica trend report, 2024). Growers want solutions, not just tech for techs sake as Loretta di loro stated in the Igrownetwork earlier.

Trained labor workers and even untrained ones are getting more and more expensive. There are also less of them by the day, If getting laborers is a problem for you, automation can be a solution. About 5.5 million people work as farm laborers and gardeners, making up nearly 3% of total EU employment in 2022, and this number has been shrinking even as overall EU employment grows (CEDEFOP, 2023). Most of these workers are men (71%), and just over half have upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education (CEDEFOP, 2023). Pay varies widely, and for seasonal and migrant workers about one in four experience tough conditions: long hours, low pay, limited healthcare, and often substandard housing (EU Reporter, 2023; Oxfam International, 2023; European Commission, 2024; Eurofound, 2023). First, automation can relieve the hardest, most repetitive work (The Agriculture Labor Shortage: Challenges and Solutions Through Automation, 2025). Modern farming is physically demanding and often unattractive to young people, partly because it is seen as isolating, unstable, and punishingly hard (Futureproofing the vision for agriculture and food, 2025). Robots and smart machines can take over repetitive, time-consuming, or unsafe tasks, like weeding or hours of manual inspections. By reducing the physical burden, technology gives farmers the chance to focus on higher-value, decision-based work and makes the job itself more dignified as human decision-making is still needed (Adapting to smart farming: communication media and local knowledge in overcoming technical challenges, 2024; Fruit Logistica trend report, 2024).

Most research in the sector is not applied, insights covered under academic lingo and in units that do not match what growers work with, without clear instructions on how to scale the insight or make it commercially viable and applicable. So much of the investment going into research, which is done with high hopes of impact, gets lost after a publication. Automation can help preserve and expand knowledge and help put it in the right context. Artificial intelligence, sensors, and digital archives can capture the wisdom of traditional farming practices, heirloom seed traits, and local crop behavior, ensuring these insights are not lost when older generations retire (How Do We Preserve Cultural Farming Traditions Amidst AI Integration?, 2025). Indoor farming systems, such as vertical farming, remove much of this environmental context and unplanned variability (Fruit Logistica trend report, 2024). By creating a controlled climate, they make production easier to standardize and replicate across different locations.

Attracting the Next Generation

We often get approached by people wanting to start a microgreens side business. Usually they have a background in software development and it or are engineers. They lack biological knowledge but found us through the thing we have in common which is software. Only 6.5% of farm managers are under 35 (Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, 2024), meaning a whole generation is stepping out of farming. Without young people entering the sector, Europe risks losing not just food production capacity, but also the diversity, resilience, and cultural identity of rural areas (Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, 2024). Fresh generations bring energy, innovation, and the willingness to invest in long-term sustainability. They are more likely to adopt new practices, experiment with climate-friendly methods, and see returns from these choices over time (Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, 2024).

The European Council of Young Farmers (CEJA) lists issues including low ambition of beginner courses, difficult accessibility and affordability of higher education, limited opportunities for lifelong training, and suboptimal bridges with research (Generational renewal in EU agriculture, 2025).

But the reality on the ground in Europe is harder. About 5.5 million people work as farm laborers and gardeners, making up nearly 3% of total EU employment in 2022, and this number has been shrinking even as overall EU employment grows (CEDEFOP, 2023). Most of these workers are men (71%), and just over half have upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education (CEDEFOP, 2023). Pay varies widely, and for seasonal and migrant workers about one in four experience tough conditions: long hours, low pay, limited healthcare, and often substandard housing (EU Reporter, 2023; Oxfam International, 2023; European Commission, 2024; Eurofound, 2023).

Another unutilized gain: Men and Women in Farming

Agriculture in Europe has always carried a gender gap (Ensuring food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture, 2023). Women account for only about 30% of the EU’s agricultural workforce, and just a third of farms are managed by women (Eurostat, 2020). This is not just a question of equality it is a structural weakness. Limited access to land, credit, and decision-making roles has meant that half of Europe’s potential talent pool remains underutilized at precisely the moment when renewal is most needed (Ensuring food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture, 2023).

As Europe’s farmers age and farm numbers decline, inclusion becomes critical (Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, 2024). The sector cannot afford to exclude women if it is to remain productive, resilient, and secure. As the European Environment Information and Observation Network wrote, mMore women in farming means more innovation, stronger rural communities, and a more balanced approach to food system challenges (Exploring multiple pathways and policy mixes for transforming European food systems, 2024).But especially the stronger rural communities become a challenge. Urbanization continues to draw especially young and educated women from rural to urban areas, creating demographic imbalances and accelerating population decline in the countryside. While women in rural Europe often achieve higher education levels than men, they face lower employment rates and fewer opportunities due to limited infrastructure, childcare, and flexible work options. This gender-biased migration leaves rural areas older, more male, and economically weaker, reinforcing cycles of out-migration and service loss. (Our world in data – Urbanization, March 2025 Young women in cities: Urbanization and gender-biased migration; Urban-rural Europe – women and men living in rural areas)

Encouragingly, the transition toward digital and sustainable farming is creating new entry points (Farmer-led Research on Europe’s Full Productivity, 2025) for people moving to urban areas, especially women, to create a more diverse future for agriculture. Emerging roles in data analysis, robotics, system maintenance, and agri-entrepreneurship are opening the sector to diverse skill sets. Regenerative farming movements are already attracting young female farmers, while technology-driven models such as vertical farming are drawing in a digitally skilled and sustainability-focused generation (Urban vertical farming: innovation for food security and social impact?, 2025).

Policy frameworks are essential. Member States can make rural life more accessible by improving services like childcare and elder care (Ensuring food security and the long-term resilience of EU agriculture, 2023). EU instruments such as EIB loan packages should adopt gender-transformative budgeting to actively support women and young farmers (Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture, 2024). Stronger legal rights, better access to entrepreneurship support, and formal inclusion in food security decision-making are all necessary steps.

Redefining who gets to be a farmer

European farming is losing people and with them, decades of experience and intuition. Veteran greenhouse and field growers know exactly how subtle shifts in wind, sunlight, or soil moisture affect crops. They understand which varieties thrive in specific microclimates and when to intervene to save a harvest. When these growers retire, this tacit knowledge often leaves with them, creating a gap that textbooks and research alone can’t fill.

Meanwhile, young people and women who could bring fresh ideas and skills often face high barriers to entry: land is expensive, practical experience is hard to acquire, and traditional farming can feel inaccessible. An inpopular and unused resource for europe.

greenhub bridges these gaps. Our GreenFarm OS and Growing Algorithm capture the experience of veteran growers, preserve it digitally, and make it usable for both beginners and experts. For the experienced greenhouse grower, this means decades of practical intuition can be combined with the latest research, automatically contextualized through sensors, digital twins, and data-driven insights. Our GreenResearcher and the network that it fosters is a living testament of making innovation actionable in our commercial systems GreenConnect and GreenPro. Suddenly, they can test new crop varieties, optimize nutrient recipes, and refine climate strategies without guesswork, turning their hard-earned knowledge into ongoing innovation.

At the same time, young aspiring farmers can learn in a hands-on, safe, and accessible way. They can transform empty buildings into vertical farms, run microgreen operations alongside other work, and see exactly how environmental conditions impact plant growth. Through hybrid systems, beginners also get guided exposure to traditional greenhouse practices, creating a living bridge between generations.

Collaboration is key. By bringing together diverse disciplines agronomy, biology, software, engineering greenhub ensures knowledge flows both ways. This is also, where AI can actually help. Automation complements intuition; CEA lowers entry barriers while preserving and amplifying the wisdom of experienced growers. Both beginners and veterans benefit: one gains a place to start and learn, the other gains a platform to innovate further.

Conclusion: Shaping the Farmer of Tomorrow

The farmer of tomorrow is not the image most people still picture: an older man in a rural field. Farming in Europe is changing, and it’s time for the world to see it. Women are leading innovation, young people are starting vertical farms in cities, and tech-savvy growers are combining science, coding, and traditional know-how to produce food sustainably.

At greenhub, we see these stories every day. We capture and preserve the knowledge of experienced growers, make it accessible to newcomers, and connect diverse talents across disciplines. But knowledge alone isn’t enough, the image of agriculture must change. Hidden women, innovative beginners, urban growers, and new green-collar professionals need to be visible, celebrated, and recognized.

This is where you come in. By sharing your story, your experiments, or even a single photo of your farm, you can inspire the next generation. Every story makes agriculture more approachable, more exciting, and more inclusive. At a time when Europe desperately needs new farmers, your visibility could be the spark that brings someone into the sector, whether they choose a traditional greenhouse, a vertical farm, or a hybrid path.

The future of farming is hybrid between generations, genders, and technologies.

If we redefine who can be a farmer, preserve their knowledge digitally, and make agriculture visible and inspiring again, we can turn today’s crisis of succession into an opportunity for renewal or simply put the farmer of tomorrow could be anyone the challenge is making them want to be.

Find out more about our new innovation.

With GreenConnect, we link existing indoor farms to the latest automation technology.

4 Key Takeaways from AVF Summit Munich 2025: Profitability, Food Security, Hybrid Models, and AI

admin — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 15:42:52 +0000

The AVF Summit 2025 in Munich brought together global stakeholders from science, policy, technology, and industry to discuss the future of food production in the face of ecological, geopolitical, and urban challenges. Structured along six thematic pillars, the two-day program provided both global perspectives and practical solutions, from climate action to investment strategies. The discussions highlighted how vertical farming is moving beyond early hype toward practical, market-driven solutions. Below are some of the main insights and debates that stood out.

Profitability and Market fit in CEA

The investment discussions in Pillar 3 echoed this same theme: without clear market fit, even the most advanced cultivation systems will struggle to secure long-term viability. Especially the panel of and introduction to CEA 360 profitability framework which we would like to elaborate on further. It was an interesting panel by Professor Joel Cuello on how to make indoor farming profitable, in which Marcos Enriquez of ISIFARMER and our Alexander Jaworski shared their respective visions for this business in this interactive panel.

CEA 360 Profitability: An Integrated Protocol for Vertical Farms

The concept of Prof. Joel Cuello for making a vertical farm profitable is a very interesting one even though we would change the direction of the arrows. It should start with the market.

We have seen too many vertical farm ideas without having the offset for the amount of produce they were able to produce, or they didn’t achieve the yields according to their contracts. A good insight during the AVF Summit was also that farms did not grow the right crops for the regions of the world they were operating in. So the produce-market fit was not given.

People like to buy what they always buy; if it is produced locally, even better. But growing something exotic for a place that is also more expensive than what people are used to will most likely fail. There are also prominent cases from the past where such a produce-market fit was not given.

Once you have identified the right produce and quantities for the right market, you move on to the supply chain operations, crop R&D, and so on. The cultivation system is a natural outcome at the end, not your starting point. So, it all starts with the market and ends with the production system, not the other way around.

Contribution of Indoor Farming to Food Security

The Current Status Quo

Growing staple crops would lead to food security. This ties into broader climate-action debates at the summit (Pillar 2), where speakers stressed that resource efficiency and CO₂ accounting must align with crop choices that genuinely support food security.

As we only eat 5.7 kg of lettuce in Germany per year, it only makes up 5.5% of the overall vegetable consumption and 1.7% of all food we consume on average in Germany per capita (Leipzig University source). To speak about food security while growing leafy greens seems too far-fetched, according to the conversations we had at the AVF Summit. The trend must lead to more caloric crops as well as staple crops.

The definition of staple crops seems unclear and might need to be broadened.

We already see protein content in wheat at 25% numbers that are way above those of field-grown wheat. Nevertheless, we would currently need an electricity price of 1 ct/kWh to make it cost-competitive with field production.

Which staple crops make sense to grow? Do peas from Veganz provide the next leap forward in that debate for staple crops in vertical farming?

Hybrid Approaches in Vertical Farming

Hybrid Solutions in Urban Structures

Pillar 4 highlighted how cities like Madrid and Singapore are integrating vertical farming into urban infrastructure, showing hybrid approaches where vertical systems complement, rather than replace, existing food production networks. As the industry has been discussing for a while now, we should rather make vertical farming an integrated hybrid solution for now instead of a stand-alone version. The market will develop together with the existing greenhouse market as well as the climate-tech market for climate change-resilient research and forestry.

Hybrid solutions that were discussed, including nurseries for greenhouses, grafting systems, tree seedlings, and speed-breeding facilities.

What approaches do you see that would make for a resilient and future-proof hybrid vertical farming system?

AI in Vertical Farming

Where Are We At?

The technology discussions in Pillar 6, from AI to digital twins, made it clear that data is becoming the most valuable input in CEA. Yet as Alex noted, questions remain around ownership and incentives for data sharing. Companies growing in their own systems, such as Avisomo, are already collecting data that can be used to train and run an AI on their operations. But we are not fully there yet, as Endre stated.

The question also remains: who has data ownership if companies that focus on AI modeling as SaaS models, and not running their own farms, train their systems on actual farm data from farm operators?

If we look at the greenhouse industry, the same question has been discussed for a longer period already, with some hesitation to share data over the last two decades. The silo approach also showed that yields per sqm have been stagnating over the last 20 years, according to a recent Rabobank report.

It is now slowly shifting that people want to learn from each other and share data. To make it more attractive for the farm operator, companies could incentivize data sharing so they have the right to train on farm data, but the farm operator is not just giving away his valuable insights. How could something like this look?

Our Conclusion of the summit

From established players to rising startups showcased in the AVF Startup Challenge (Pillar 5), the summit made clear that the vertical farming sector is maturing and moving from experimentation to execution. The AVF Summit in Munich showed that the vertical farming sector is entering a new phase: profitability models must begin with the market, food security will require staple crops, hybrid systems offer resilience, and AI will only thrive if data sharing is addressed fairly.

The debates sparked in Munich are not about whether vertical farming will play a role, but about how it can become sustainable, profitable, and future-proof.

Who whas there at AVF summit 2025?

In this collaborative setting, it was inspiring to see so many familiar and new faces come together Michał Słota, Andreas Köck, Alessandro Oliveri, Alexander Jaworski, Fadi Sbaiti, Peter Defranceschi, Marcos Enriquez, Susanne Hirschmann, Marie Ammann, Laura Nelson, Tusya Garibashvili, Besan Dahboor Engel, Endre Thesen Harnes, Christine Zimmermann-Loessl, Silvana Nicola, Joel Cuello, Julia Rocha Romero, Senthold Asseng, Reinhard Bott, Hannah Hoven, Martin Parapatits, Fadi Al-Daoud, Andrea Kienle, Mandar Godge, Rachel Norman, Michael Schmidt, Johann Waldherr, Nivedita Mahida-Königsdörfer, Sabine Wittmann, Pooja Suresh Gowda, Eleonora Itri, Nina Kapitan, the VertiFarm team, Susanna Lössl, Patricia Cliff, Christer Tilk — and many more.

It was a rare opportunity to connect and reconnect with colleagues across the vertical farming ecosystem, and to dive into truly in-depth conversations about how far the industry has come, and where it is headed next.

Find out more about our new innovation.

With GreenConnect, we link existing indoor farms to the latest automation technology.

Hydroponic Farming, part of the future in the Mediterranean?

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 14:29:13 +0000

1. Introduction: Agriculture’s Water Crisis in the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean region as a whole is described as a “climate change hot spot,” where changes in climatic parameters—especially temperature and precipitation—exceed global mean values (Climate Change in the Mediterranean: Environmental Impacts and Extreme Events: IEMed). Freshwater scarcity is one of the most urgent challenges facing Mediterranean agriculture today. Countries like Spain, Türkiye, Italy, and Greece are already experiencing the impacts of rising temperatures, declining rainfall, and overexploited aquifers. For farmers, this means shorter growing windows, unpredictable harvests, and rising input costs unless they adopt new water-smart practices.

Rising temperatures: Mean annual temperatures across the Mediterranean Basin are about 1.5 °C above late 19th-century levels, exceeding the global average (Climate Change in the Mediterranean: Environmental Impacts and Extreme Events: IEMed). This warming has led to more frequent and intense heatwaves, with continuous midday temperatures above 30 to 40 °C.
Declining rainfall: There has been a “rapid change in the water cycle due to increased evaporation and less rainfall.” Projections indicate “substantial reductions of water availability by 2–15% for 2 °C of warming,” which is one of the largest decreases globally (Climate Change in the Mediterranean: Environmental Impacts and Extreme Events: IEMed). River flow and discharge are also expected to significantly decrease.
Overexploited aquifers: The “overexploitation of existing water reservoirs and groundwater aquifers” is contributing to environmental stress (Climate Change in the Mediterranean: Environmental Impacts and Extreme Events: IEMed). In the Almería coastal region (Spain), “some water contamination problems of the underlying aquifers have already been detected.”

In southern Spain, for example, annual precipitation could drop by up to 30%, and in some regions even 40% (Climate Change in the Mediterranean: Environmental Impacts and Extreme Events: IEMed). Meanwhile, Türkiye’s agricultural sector consumes over 85% of the country’s total water use (World Bank to Support Farmers Enhance Crop Production and Food Availability in Türkiye)—a figure that is unsustainable in the face of climate change.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), every 1 °C increase in global temperature (up to 2.7 °C above pre-industrial levels) reduces renewable freshwater resources by at least 20%, potentially pushing millions more into water-stressed conditions. As temperatures rise, the number of people living in water-scarce river basins is expected to increase from 8% at 2 °C to 13% at 5 °C worldwide (IPCC, 2021). That’s why Mediterranean growers need solutions now, not just to survive climate shifts, but to stay competitive.

By 2100, regions across the Mediterranean could see irrigation water demands—already representing 50–90% of total water use in Mediterranean countries—increase by 4–18% as a result of climate change alone (for a 2 °C and 5 °C warming scenario, respectively), even as available freshwater declines (Climate Change in the Mediterranean: Environmental Impacts and Extreme Events: IEMed).

2. Drought Pressure Opportunities and Innovation, 3 Mediterranean countries highlighted

Türkiye

Funding Window:

$819M from the World Bank — Türkiye Second Irrigation Modernization and Water Efficiency Project (World Bank to Support Farmers Enhance Crop Production and Food Availability in Türkiye). Antalya has the largest greenhouse horticulture surface and is the first producer of the horticultural crops of Türkiye (Environmental and Economic Performance of Greenhouse Cropping in the Mediterranean Basin: Lessons Learnt from a Cross-Country Comparison).
→ Covers 72,000 ha, targeting 50,000+ farms
→ will serve farmers in and around central Anatolia region and Antalya province, targeting a population of over 550,000 people
→ Supports water-saving tech, infrastructure upgrades, and weather-resilient systems

Hydroponic Fit:
Soilless systems are expanding in geothermal zones with high-tech greenhouse support (Current trends in protected cultivation in Mediterranean climates). Antalya is a region to watch for hydroponics, thanks to geothermal potential and a well-established greenhouse sector.

Spain

Drought pressure opportunities:
While no direct national subsidies for hydroponics are published recently, the Andalusian Regional Government is investing over €15.7 million in 2025 to help more than 14,000 producers access combined agricultural insurance. This support aims to stabilize incomes in the face of climate-related risks like drought, frost, and storms — key issues that are pushing the need for more water-efficient and controlled farming systems (Source: Junta de Andalucía, July 2025). Although this aid is not tied to greenhouse modernization and is not a direct incentive for hydroponics, the insurance support signals growing public interest in risk mitigation an area where hydroponics offers clear advantages through controlled-environment growing. Safeguarding agricultural productivity in high-risk zones like Almería, with its well-established greenhouse sector, is becoming increasingly important.

In 2024, the Junta de Andalucía launched a €500 million rural aid package to support modernization, improve competitiveness, and attract a new generation to farming. This includes €100 million earmarked specifically for machinery and equipment upgrades, plus a €36 million investment in irrigation system modernization. A further €130 million will support young farmers, and €80 million is being made available through subsidized credit lines. While not hydroponics-exclusive, these funding lines are open to commercial farmers, including greenhouse operators in Almería — one of Europe’s most water-stressed production zones.
(https://www.surinenglish.com/andalucia/the-regional-government-injects-liquidity-into-the-20240417075748-nt.html)

Hydroponic Fit:
Updating irrigation to hydroponics or drip systems can solve issues related to drought by retrofitting parts of the big greenhouse regions. Digitalization can help attract younger farmers to this region. Hydroponics turns water risk into a competitive edge — using less water and offering more stable yields in extreme conditions. So, it is a strategic investment on both ends.

Greece

Funding Window:
In November 2024, the Greek government announced the €150 million Intervention P3-73-2.9 as part of its 2023–2027 CAP Strategic Plan, designed to support the modernization or construction of greenhouses and mushroom shelters. The scheme provides 50–70% subsidies for investments in:

Hydroponic and soilless cultivation systems
Heating, cooling, automation, and shading
Water and nutrient recycling systems
Solar and renewable energy integration (up to 30%)

Eligible applicants include individual farmers, cooperatives, and agri-legal entities registered in the national agricultural registry.
Source: Ministry of Agricultural Development & Food (Greece), Nov 2024

Why This Matters Now:
Greece is facing a deepening water crisis, with reservoirs shrinking, crop failures mounting, and rural communities running dry. In 2024 alone, entire harvests — such as cotton and olives — were halted due to lack of irrigation, especially in Thessaly, Crete, and central Greece (Kathimerini, July 2024; To Vima, July 2024).

The pressure on farmers is intensifying:

55% of total water use in Greece is for agriculture
Several regions imposed irrigation bans during critical growing periods
Soil degradation and salinity are rising due to over-irrigation and drought cycles

Hydroponics fit:
This funding comes at a crucial moment for growers seeking water-resilient solutions. Hydroponic systems use up to 90% less water, can be operated in closed-loop setups, and offer precise climate control — making them ideal for regions like Crete, Thessaly, and the Aegean islands.

The initiative also supports:

Retrofitting older greenhouses with smart technology
Combining solar power with automated irrigation
Growing high-value crops in limited spaces

By enabling a shift toward controlled-environment agriculture, this program offers an opportunity for tools to futureproof not just farms, the future of food security in water-stressed regions of Greece.

3. What Next? Exploring ways to leverage hydroponics, indoor farming and CEA.

EU Funding Is Evolving, So Should Your Growing Strategy

As climate change intensifies across Europe, the European Commission is rolling out a new wave of water-saving subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The upcoming revision includes:

Support for drought-resistant crops in arid regions
Funding for precision irrigation and water reuse technologies
“Transition Packages” for farms adopting sustainable, climate-smart practices
Additional financing via the European Investment Bank for ecosystem resilience

These measures signal a strategic pivot: European agriculture must now balance production with climate adaptation and water efficiency. For Mediterranean growers, especially in water-stressed regions like Greece, Spain, Türkiye, and Italy, this is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Hydroponic systems are a great growth strategy to leverage these budgets and futureproof your farm. With up to significant water savings, efficient nutrient delivery, and year-round production, soilless farming is perfectly aligned with the EU’s new sustainability criteria.

How greenhub can support you:

At greenhub, we help Mediterranean farmers future-proof their businesses with:

Guidance for hydroponic funding eligibility & applications

Access to hydroponic technology, our partners and system setup.

Agronomic, technical, and financial guidance for system setup.

Retrofits for existing greenhouses or full indoor farming systems.

Guidance in making the transition to hydroponic growing and cultivation recipe development.

Let us know what you are growing and what your goals are, we’re here to bridge the gap between policy and practice.

Ready to take the next step? Contact greenhub today and let’s shape the future of Mediterranean farming, together.

Curious if hydroponics is right for your farm? Our GreenConnect and GreenPro tools can help you take the first step.

Vertical Farming versus Greenhouses: is it really a competition?

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 14:23:21 +0000

It’s a question we often hear at greenhub:

“Which is better vertical or greenhouse farming?”

Over the past few years, many reports and studies have tried to compare the two. But the reality is: it’s like comparing apples to pears. Vertical farming is still a young, fast-evolving field without standard benchmarks. Greenhouse cultivation, on the other hand, is a mature, global industry, but one that looks very different depending on where you are.

Instead of framing it as a competition, we believe it’s more useful to see them as part of the same movement: Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA).

Each system has its strengths.
Greenhouses work with natural sunlight and thrive in spring and summer. With supplemental lighting and heating, they can stretch the season even further.
Vertical farms actively create optimal growing conditions year-round and is especially valuable in cities, extreme climates, or when consistency is critical.

And sometimes, the smartest setup is a hybrid approach.
For example: using vertical farming for propagation and early growth, and finishing crops in the greenhouse. This can lead to a clean, uniform, and strong start which often pays off later in the cycle.

At the end of the day, the best solution depends on your crop, market, location, energy setup, and climate conditions.

It’s not about either-or.
It’s about making systems work together and choosing the elements that fit your goals and in the whole process.

Let’s shift the conversation from comparison to collaboration.
That’s where the real innovation happens.

Steps towards a viable indoor farm: summary of indoor farming future directions from academia

admin — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 15:49:33 +0000

Embracing This Moment as an Opportunity

In part one, we looked into the current status of the industry, and this week we explore the future directions that are already emerging. Today, we offer a glimpse into the insights shared during Marcelis’ Beyond the Hype seminar. Sharing knowledge, as academia is actively doing, is crucial if we want to grow as an industry, and this trend is being embraced more widely.

The shift toward transparency and a willingness to discuss real challenges indicate that the industry is heading in a positive direction. Discussions around identity, market strategy, and cost management are essential steps toward finding real solutions. Managing expectations around tech solutions is another recurring topic in industry roundtables. This presents an opportunity to move beyond merely listing problems and start collaborating on practical strategies.

Academia Leading the Way in Solutions

Academia is already showing a more solution-oriented approach and provides hands-on examples where improvements can be made today.

Labor Optimization and Scaling Strategy
Smaller farms struggle with automation due to limited scale. Marcelis highlights the need for critical personnel in vertical farms, such as a skilled grower, technician, marketer, entrepreneur, financial expert, and HR manager. He suggests that the focus should be on building the right team for each stage of development and scaling thoughtfully.
This emphasizes the importance of human expertise and careful planning to address the multifaceted challenges of vertical farming.
Data and AI for Autonomous Production
Marcelis emphasizes the importance of data, sensors, models, and AI in moving toward autonomous production control but notes that experienced growers are still essential for now. Long-term, he envisions a future where an autonomous “control room” could connect to vertical farms worldwide, enabling real-time adjustments based on data-driven insights.
Balancing technological advances with growers’ experience ensures a smoother transition toward autonomous farming.
Energy Reduction Strategy
- Three-Part Energy Strategy:
  - Drastically reduce energy use per kilogram of produce.
  - Switch to renewable energy sources.
  - Time energy use to avoid peak energy prices.
Understanding plant demand better—such as recognizing that plants do not need consistent lighting throughout the day—could help time lighting more efficiently and reduce costs.
- Lighting Efficiency: While LEDs are highly efficient, there is more potential in improving light-use efficiency in plants. Optimizing plant physiology to use light more effectively could lower energy consumption.
These strategies highlight the critical importance of resource management in making vertical farming more sustainable.
Crop Selection for Economic Viability
Marcelis presents an analysis for choosing economically viable crops in vertical farms:
- Dry Matter Production per Light Mol: Most crops produce around 0.6 grams per mol of light.
- Harvest Index: This varies significantly by crop; for instance, lettuce has a high harvest index of 0.9, meaning a large portion of the plant is harvestable, while wheat has a lower index of 0.6.
- Fresh-to-Dry Mass Ratio: For lettuce, the ratio is about 25; for wheat, it’s only 1.1, indicating that lettuce yields more edible product relative to its dry weight.
- Revenue Potential per Mol Photon: Lettuce has a revenue potential of 13.5 cents per mol of light, while wheat is only 0.04 cents, making high-value crops like lettuce more suitable for vertical farms.
Focusing on crops with strong economic and production profiles provides a path to profitability and sustainability for vertical farms.
New Crop Cultivars for Indoor Farming
Marcelis calls for the development of new cultivars optimized specifically for vertical farming. Unlike traditional crops bred for environmental resilience (heat, drought), vertical farm crops should prioritize:
- High light-use efficiency
- Tip-burn resistance
- Compact root systems
- Quality traits over resilience to outdoor pests
Specialized crops hold the potential to unlock greater efficiency and quality in indoor farming.

Honoring the Pioneers and Moving Toward a Resilient Future

It’s important to recognize the work of the pioneers who laid the groundwork for the vertical farming industry, even if some ventures didn’t last. Their efforts have raised public awareness of indoor-grown produce and helped define the potential of vertical farming. By reflecting on their successes and setbacks, the industry can take a more steady, adaptable approach moving forward.

Acknowledging the contributions of early leaders provides valuable lessons for building a more resilient and sustainable future.

Collaborative Solutions for a Stronger Industry

The improvement areas identified by Marcelis underline the need for enhanced transparency and actionable insights. Industry-wide efforts to promote standardized data collection across suppliers, academics, and growers could create use cases that accelerate innovation in vertical farming. Sharing knowledge and fostering collaboration will be crucial in moving beyond isolated progress to systemic growth.

Energy reduction strategies are another area where cooperation can drive impactful change. Through partnerships with academic and industry stakeholders, progress is being made in making vertical farming more energy-efficient and sustainable.

By focusing on collective progress and practical solutions, the industry can navigate its challenges more effectively.

A Balanced Path Forward

Vertical farming is at a turning point. By embracing both the challenges and opportunities, the industry can grow stronger through collaboration, innovation, and a willingness to learn. The future of vertical farming lies not in quick fixes but in steady, thoughtful progress.

This is a shared journey, and the collective efforts of researchers, growers, and innovators will shape the path forward.

greenhub updates GreenResearchers at long term partner/client alfred wegner institute and continues to learn from their aquaponics research

admin — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 13:28:11 +0000

Yesterday, Kay Plat and Julius Riegger visited our long-term partner/client, the AWI Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (ZAF), to update our GreenResearcher systems with an additional layer.

It’s always a great exchange and an enriching experience discussing topics like aquaponics, hydroponics, aquaculture, and innovative circular approaches. Thank you, Kai Lorkowski and Isabela Pinheiro, for your time, collaboration, and trust in our technologies!

Want to learn more about the GreenResearcher?

If you want to learn more about the GreenResearcher and how it can support your research efforts please visit the following subpage for more information.

Steps Toward a Viable Indoor Farm: Learning from Vertical Farming Successes, Mistakes, and Reliable Data Sources

admin — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 13:59:16 +0000

Abstract:

Indoor farming is at a pivotal moment, learning from early pioneers’ successes and setbacks to shape a more sustainable future. This article summarizes key challenges, mentioned by industry experts at the moment—such as scaling too quickly, high costs, and market pressures—while highlighting promising shifts like hybrid farming, incremental growth, and integrating vertical farms with traditional agriculture. We respect the remarkable strides made by the vertical farming pioneers in advancing technology and consumer acceptance, laying a foundation for progress for the whole industry. At greenhub, we are eager to learn and acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers. By fostering collaboration, innovation, and practicality, we believe that the industry can unlock its potential for a resilient, sustainable future. Collaboration is at the core of what we do.

Part one: Overview of the Current State of the Industry

This week, we’re beginning our journey towards building a more viable indoor farm. At greenhub, we don’t claim to have all the answers, but we’re committed to understanding the challenges and opportunities shaping this field. In this post, we’ll explore some of the core issues currently sparking conversation—from industry and academic debates to supplier insights. We’ll take an honest look at where things stand, why some of the early pioneers faced setbacks, and how these lessons might help us move forward.

Next week, we’ll dive into potential solutions and practical steps, sharing what we’re learning from EuroTier to understand how vertical farming fits into the larger agricultural landscape.

1. Building on the Lessons of Indoor Farm Pioneers

At greenhub, we have a lot of respect for the vision and determination shown by vertical farming pioneers like Bowery Farming. Bowery had $700 million in funding and partnerships with major retailers like Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh, aiming to redefine how we grow and distribute food by creating high-tech, indoor farms to bring fresh produce to urban areas. But despite these bold efforts, the financial reality of scaling up—high costs for infrastructure, energy, and labor—ultimately forced them to close when they couldn’t secure further funding or a buyer.

Bowery’s story isn’t unique. Other well-known vertical farming companies, like Infarm, Jungle, and Future Crops, have faced similar challenges and had to either scale back or shut down. Stephan Dolezalek, managing partner at Grosvenor Food & AgTech and a former AeroFarms board member, sees these setbacks as part of the natural cycle for new industries. There’s often a lot of enthusiasm at the start, leading to big investments, sometimes before the market is mature enough to support them. As Dolezalek suggests, this phase of adjustment could help the industry stabilize, setting the stage for a new era of resilient, profitable vertical farming businesses (source: AgTechNavigator.com).

Academia acknowledges these events and is reflecting on the developments regarding the pioneers too. Vertical farming received substantial venture capital investment up until 2021, totaling $1.2 billion. Major investments included:

Plenty: $500 million from SoftBank and Amazon

AeroFarms: $240 million from IKEA and Dubai-based investors

Bowery Farming: $170 million from Google Ventures

80 Acres Farms: $200 million

Infarm: €400 million

PlantLab: €20 million

Nordic Harvest: €10 million

By 2022, the “hype” began to fade as companies like AeroFarms and Kalera faced bankruptcy, marking what Marcelis calls a natural industry “shakeout.” He notes that vertical farming isn’t dead, as new projects like Growy in Amsterdam and 80 Acres are still seeing high demand. Academia is acknowledging this valley of despair stage of the industry but also recognizes that we are at a pivotal point of change.

2. Common Challenges in an Indoor Farm: Are We Ready to Move Forward?

With each big-name closure, we’re getting a clearer picture of the recurring challenges that vertical farming faces. Here are the key issues that keep coming up and I am sure you must have read before:

Growing Too Big Too Fast: Many vertical farms scaled up quickly to satisfy investor expectations, which often led to them losing focus on stability and core farming practices.
Identity Crisis: Vertical farms sometimes position themselves as tech companies rather than farms, which might help with fundraising but can detract from what’s most important: producing and selling quality food.
Misunderstanding Retail Market Dynamics: Some farms underestimated factors like pricing pressure, retailer demands, and competition for shelf space. No matter how innovative a farm is, it still has to compete on price.
Profit vs. Revenue: Emphasizing gross revenue over net profit is a common mistake. Without a clear grasp of actual costs, high revenue alone isn’t enough to sustain a business long-term.

While it’s good that the industry is calling out these issues, we’re still mostly at the “problem identification” stage rather than moving toward solutions. Posts that simply list these challenges get a lot of attention, with responses like “spot on” and “well said,” but actionable solutions are still rare. And while there’s often a call to “share data,” we know it’s more complicated than that. If it were as easy as copying someone else’s “growing recipe,” vertical farming would already be thriving without these setbacks.

It is interesting that academia is defining the problems slightly differently but also similarly across research papers. Again, Marcelis is a good example and summary of the academic point of view:

Energy Costs and Consumption: The cost and sustainability of energy use are critical concerns. Vertical farms typically require significant energy, especially for lighting.
High Labor Costs: Smaller-scale operations often struggle to automate tasks, making labour-intensive processes a burden. Many positions, from office staff to technicians, are required even for small farms.
Lack of Knowledge and Knowledge Sharing: Vertical farming suffers from limited knowledge-sharing on effective practices, which hinders industry-wide improvement.
Product Price and Market Viability: Pricing remains a challenge, as high operational costs make it difficult for vertical farms to compete with other forms of agriculture on price.

Prof. Dr. Leo Marcelis highlights that while vertical farming faces significant challenges, the industry is in a pivotal phase of learning and growth. Through targeted strategies in labor, energy use, crop selection, and technology, vertical farming has the potential to overcome its current obstacles and move toward a more sustainable, economically viable future.

3. A Shift Toward Openness and Incremental Growth

One positive shift is the openness with which industry leaders are now addressing challenges. For the first time, we’re seeing people acknowledge both the struggles and the potential, which signals a real turning point. This honesty shows that we’re moving into a more grounded phase where we can start having practical conversations about what actually works.

Another trend we’re seeing is a move away from rapid, large-scale expansions toward smaller, adaptable farms. This steady, incremental approach prioritizes sustainable growth, energy efficiency, and resource management. At greenhub, we believe this is the best path forward, as it allows operations to adapt without taking on the high financial risks associated with scaling up too fast.

4. Integrating Indoor Farms into a Broader Agricultural Ecosystem

In addition to this trend toward smaller, resilient farms, vertical farming is finding a role within traditional agricultural systems, like greenhouses and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) setups. Universities, research institutions, and suppliers are conducting trials within these environments, focusing on crop optimization, resilience, and innovative growing practices. This blended approach reduces financial risk and boosts productivity, making vertical farming a valuable partner to conventional methods.

Marcelis suggests that vertical farms and greenhouses could benefit from a hybrid approach. For instance, young plants could be cultivated in vertical farms where they’re protected from external stressors, while larger plants could be transferred to greenhouses where cost-efficiency is better established.

Presence of the inhouse pavilion in Hannover at EUROTIER also shows that indoor farming is already a part of the broader agricultural ecosystem. Vertical farming in indoor farming will be represented by Alexander Jaworski during the theme day of Aquaculture and Algae at the inhouse farming pavilion during the roundtable ‘ Fish, Algae, Shrimp, Insects, and Vegetables from Indoor Farms – Out of the Marketing Desert!?’, moderated by Fraunhofer and DLG e. V.

At greenhub we learn everyday if you want to find out more about us check out:

We learn by collaboration with suppliers, research institutes and farms. At our technology we explain and go more in depth how we learn through our collaborations. Sharing insights is at the core of what we do.

Want to find out where we got these insights?

Here are some of the sources we used to help us write this article!

Big News: SBG – Sächsische Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH is backing greenhub solutions through the StartupLab Sachsen program!

admin — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 14:04:01 +0000

We’re beyond excited to share that greenhub solutions has teamed up with Sächsische Beteiligungsgesellschaft (SBG)! This support marks a huge step forward in our mission to make food production possible worldwide by making indoor farming more sustainable, efficient, and resource-friendly.

Being chosen as one of the winners of the #TUCLab competition was an incredible moment, and SBG’s investment now gives us the boost we need to take our projects to the next level. Together, we’re shaping the future of indoor farming and bringing “Innovations Made in Saxony” to the world stage.

A big thank you to SBG for believing in our vision. Here’s to a more sustainable tomorrow!

Beyond Leafy Greens: Can Vertical Farming Expand its Reach? – a response to VertiFarm

admin — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 14:22:33 +0000

Exploring Viable Crops, Data Sharing, and Industry Collaboration to Propel Vertical Farming Forward

Introduction: The Current Landscape of Vertical Farming

Can Vertical Farming Evolve Beyond Microgreens?

VertiFarm, the only trade fair in Germany focusing solely on vertical farming/CEA, is a good reflection of the current situation in the sector. Everyone knows it will be part of the future but is uncertain about how it will integrate into a global food system. A natural reaction to this uncertainty is for players to withdraw from the market. With the failure of some promising business models that were somewhat ahead of their time in terms of technical and infrastructural feasibility. A few have remained. A few who are now looking for new ways to integrate effective approaches into local, regional systems.

VertiFarm Insights: Uncertain Times and New Directions

Reflecting on VertiFarm: Navigating Uncertainty and Uncovering New Solutions

A first step is microgreens: less mechanized, fast-growing, and requiring manageable amounts of energy. Will it fulfill the promise of vertical farming to create food security? Probably not. However, it does contribute by educating communities on how locally produced food can be integrated into the supply chain, fostering community building, and supporting reasonable unit economics. Almost every major city in Germany now has microgreens suppliers, marking a first step towards more decentralized agriculture.

Diversifying Crops: Tomatoes, Peppers, and Protein Peas

Exploring New Crops and Energy-Saving Solutions for Vertical Farming

Another approach involves crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and cannabis. The first three are still in the development stage, as the holistic concept needs to be refined. Dynamic electricity pricing models, potentially incorporating renewable energy, exploiting negative electricity prices on the electricity exchange, and dynamic lighting models for energy-optimized cultivation all need to be considered. Although there are already promising approaches in the market, these were unfortunately not represented at VertiFarm. One approach that was represented was the cultivation of peas for protein extraction for the vegan market. This is an interesting strategy that can be viable on the Arabian Peninsula due to favourable electricity and labour costs.

Data Sharing: Is Collaboration Vertical Farming’s Missing Ingredient?

Data Collaboration: The Panels and Presentations at VertiFarm All Had a Similar Conclusion

And then, yes, we still need the plants. Growth strategies and models that are plant-centered and produce a homogeneous, predictable harvest are essential. The panels and presentations at VertiFarm were unanimous in emphasizing data sharing as a shift in the industry. Moving away from silo thinking towards an industry created through cooperation and collaboration will help to generate demand.

We at greenhub identify with this approach, working in partnerships and leveraging data insights to scale from research to industry. We were honoured to win the pitch event in the scaling businesses category with this approach, a recognition from peers in the industry.

Overcoming Industry Growing Pains: Challenges with Equipment, Knowledge, and Transparency

Lessons from Early Mistakes, should we Start Sharing this Information First?

Data sharing in vertical farming is complex. What data can we share, and with whom? Despite being around for almost 15 years, the industry remains highly competitive across academia, suppliers, and farms. Funded farms, especially, are protective of their IP and data due to contractual obligations. This lack of transparency means we miss out on learning from each other’s challenges. What one farm has solved could benefit the whole industry. As David Meszaros from Smartkas said at VertiFarm, “Where is the Volvo seatbelt for vertical farming?” Sharing successful strategies can help the industry grow and enable local fresh produce worldwide, alongside traditional farming and CEA.

Many speakers at VertiFarm expressed that we need to share data. These are not new ideas; we’ve been advocating for data sharing for several years. Yet, to this day, data sharing is minimal. Is it perhaps because we don’t yet know how to make sense of it? If you had data from another farm, how would you generate insights? What data would we even analyze? Some might focus on cultivation strategies or when automation becomes viable. With no standardization in hardware, software, or sensor placement, can we even compare farms? Should we share all data?

Perhaps starting with failures is a good first step. Why repeat each other’s mistakes? Many vertical farms claim to model growth, climate, and cultivation data, but can we really translate those insights into actionable strategies across different farms? Or will one farm’s successful strategy be copied globally?

How to Use Data: Navigating Through the Current Insights Publicly available

How Standardization Can Bridge the Knowledge Gap for Vertical Farmers

Imagine purchasing the hardware to start a vertical farm but lacking the knowledge to optimize the growing process. Unfortunately, this scenario is not as uncommon as it sounds. A 2021 Agritecture study found that 73% of operators would change their equipment, technology, or plant species if they could go back in time. The same study revealed that 49% of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) operators had no prior experience in agriculture. It makes sense that a grower new to the industry would seek answers.

Now, you can find data about vertical farming and potential problems, and there are also many solutions out there. The data that’s publicly available mainly comes from academia and industry suppliers, who tend to focus on sharing success stories. Academic failures rarely get published; you might only spot them by reading between the lines of the discussion sections. Suppliers also avoid highlighting failures, as this isn’t the message they want to send. For breeders, if they make their “how to grow” guidelines too specific and farmers don’t achieve the promised results, they risk losing customers.

The downside of well-intentioned recommendations becomes apparent when things don’t go as planned. Given this status quo in this young industry, the question remains: How can we ensure that the next generation of business owners and growers receives the support and knowledge they need to use their systems effectively and achieve successful crop production? Our goal with greenhub is to learn how to scale results and make sense of the data shared by those heroically offering insights today

Standardizing Data and Data Modelling: A Path Forward with greenhub and Industry Partners

Building Scalable Models in Controlled Environment Agriculture

It’s no surprise that some suppliers have stepped away from vertical farming; demonstrating relevant use cases in such an unstandardized industry is frustrating and often leads to disappointment. Even in academia, it’s hard to compare researchers using the same setup, let alone when data is collected manually. This issue mirrors the greenhouse industry, where no grower collects plant data the same way. Comparing research across universities with different setups is even more challenging. We’re starting by interpreting futuristic data from both suppliers and academia, focusing on standardization while also adapting when necessary.

Partnering with companies and research institutes that are already sharing data is invaluable and central to our growth as a company. Our aim is to support the adoption of findings, technologies, and products that advance the industry with data that’s directly accessible and usable from the start. We are looking forward to the next steps of standardizing data collection through the GreenResearcher.

In developing nonlinear regression models for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), what are the complexities involved in creating adaptive and scalable models that account for variability among different greenhouses and vertical farming systems? Specifically, what types of sensors and measurement points are essential to accurately capture the necessary data? Additionally, is it essential to start with high-tech setups to manage this complexity and gradually reduce it through iterations, or could a 90% reliability rate be achieved across different systems with a more simplified approach?

Conclusion: Lets Collaborate in CEA and Vertical Farming

Let’s Connect: We Look Forward To Explore What We Can Share!

Whether you are a grower, researcher, or supplier in the CEA industry, let’s connect! If this has sparked your interest, reach out, and we’ll find a way to collaborate. Let’s start with sharing what we can share and create applicable use cases together.

greenhub

From Monitoring to Control: Smarter Greenhouse Management

Why It’s Still So Complicated

The Shift to Adaptive and Preventative Growing

One Platform, All Systems

Data You Can Trust, Insights You Can Use

Why It Matters

Read the full whitepaper: Bridging the Data Divide – Building a Common Standard for CEA

Growing is Hard. So, Who’s Doing It Next?

Losing the Farmer, Losing the Knowledge

Why Automation Is Not the Enemy

Attracting the Next Generation

Another unutilized gain: Men and Women in Farming

Redefining who gets to be a farmer

Conclusion: Shaping the Farmer of Tomorrow

Find out more about our new innovation.

4 Key Takeaways from AVF Summit Munich 2025: Profitability, Food Security, Hybrid Models, and AI

Profitability and Market fit in CEA

CEA 360 Profitability: An Integrated Protocol for Vertical Farms

Contribution of Indoor Farming to Food Security

The Current Status Quo

Hybrid Approaches in Vertical Farming

Hybrid Solutions in Urban Structures

AI in Vertical Farming

Where Are We At?

Our Conclusion of the summit

Who whas there at AVF summit 2025?

Find out more about our new innovation.

Hydroponic Farming, part of the future in the Mediterranean?

1. Introduction: Agriculture’s Water Crisis in the Mediterranean

2. Drought Pressure Opportunities and Innovation, 3 Mediterranean countries highlighted

Türkiye

Spain

Greece

3. What Next? Exploring ways to leverage hydroponics, indoor farming and CEA.

EU Funding Is Evolving, So Should Your Growing Strategy

How greenhub can support you:

Vertical Farming versus Greenhouses: is it really a competition?

Steps towards a viable indoor farm: summary of indoor farming future directions from academia

Embracing This Moment as an Opportunity

Academia Leading the Way in Solutions

Honoring the Pioneers and Moving Toward a Resilient Future

Collaborative Solutions for a Stronger Industry

A Balanced Path Forward

greenhub updates GreenResearchers at long term partner/client alfred wegner institute and continues to learn from their aquaponics research

Want to learn more about the GreenResearcher?

Steps Toward a Viable Indoor Farm: Learning from Vertical Farming Successes, Mistakes, and Reliable Data Sources

Abstract:

Part one: Overview of the Current State of the Industry

1. Building on the Lessons of Indoor Farm Pioneers

2. Common Challenges in an Indoor Farm: Are We Ready to Move Forward?

3. A Shift Toward Openness and Incremental Growth

4. Integrating Indoor Farms into a Broader Agricultural Ecosystem

At greenhub we learn everyday if you want to find out more about us check out:

Want to find out where we got these insights?

Big News: SBG – Sächsische Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH is backing greenhub solutions through the StartupLab Sachsen program!

Beyond Leafy Greens: Can Vertical Farming Expand its Reach? – a response to VertiFarm

Exploring Viable Crops, Data Sharing, and Industry Collaboration to Propel Vertical Farming Forward

Introduction: The Current Landscape of Vertical Farming

Can Vertical Farming Evolve Beyond Microgreens?

VertiFarm Insights: Uncertain Times and New Directions

Reflecting on VertiFarm: Navigating Uncertainty and Uncovering New Solutions

Diversifying Crops: Tomatoes, Peppers, and Protein Peas

Exploring New Crops and Energy-Saving Solutions for Vertical Farming

Data Sharing: Is Collaboration Vertical Farming’s Missing Ingredient?

Data Collaboration: The Panels and Presentations at VertiFarm All Had a Similar Conclusion

Overcoming Industry Growing Pains: Challenges with Equipment, Knowledge, and Transparency

Lessons from Early Mistakes, should we Start Sharing this Information First?

How to Use Data: Navigating Through the Current Insights Publicly available

How Standardization Can Bridge the Knowledge Gap for Vertical Farmers

Standardizing Data and Data Modelling: A Path Forward with greenhub and Industry Partners

Building Scalable Models in Controlled Environment Agriculture

Conclusion: Lets Collaborate in CEA and Vertical Farming

Let’s Connect: We Look Forward To Explore What We Can Share!

Want to see more of greenhub?

Explore how the press at vertifarm captured us