Fall 2022 –  Creating a Circular Economy between Indoor Vertical Farming and Food Waste  

Project Directors: Yujin Park and Zhihao Chen

The promise of low carbon footprint food sourcing and dramatically-reduced water use (95% less!) is driving the acceleration in vertical farming development activity by both startups and large companies.  Zhihao Chen, as a co-founder of ASU startup Homer Farms, Inc., is leading the effort to build a 10,000-square-foot vertical farm facility in Phoenix.  Partial funding in the amount of $100,000 was received from City of Phoenix.  This new capability was introduced in an online article: https://www.emergingtechbrew.com/stories/2022/11/01/inside-phoenix-s-high-tech-plan-to-grow-its-own-veggies.

Additional City of Phoenix funding was awarded to the PDs’ Indoor Farming Lab with a 1:1 match from ASU; the total leveraged funding received was $105,277.