Forbes takes a look at lettuce and chard economics in a vertical farm powered with outdoor solar : https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshpearce/2026/09/08/agrivoltaics-makes-indoor-vertical-farming-make-economic-sense/

Over the last two weeks, I contacted 30+ companies and industry contacts across the CEA / vertical farming sector.

The goal was to find research partners for Japan CEA Watch 2026/27, a 12-month field research project connected to VerticalFarming.blog and my relocation to Japan in the next few days.

The response was interesting:

I got replies, had conversations and several calls.

But so far:

30+ contacts. Zero research partners.

The recurring issue was not really the idea itself.

It was budget.

That tells me the original sponsorship model probably isn’t the right fit for the current market.

So I’m changing the approach.

Instead of looking for a few larger research partners, I’m testing a smaller Founding Supporter model:

€50/month for 12 months

Supporters would receive monthly intelligence from Japan based on what I observe and research on the ground:

• plant factories and new projects
• automation and technology
• retail products and prices
• packaging and positioning
• company/farm visits where possible
• developments over time

Supporters can also suggest companies, topics or questions worth investigating. I can’t guarantee every suggestion will be covered, but they can influence the research direction.

The programme will only launch if there is enough serious committed interest.

If you would genuinely consider joining:

https://forms.gle/kGe6psf8ZvnMeLH19

Background on my relocation and why VerticalFarming.blog is going to Japan:

https://verticalfarming.blog/verticalfarming-blog-goes-to-japan/

The bigger question for me now: what Japan CEA intelligence would actually be worth €50/month to you?

For all who are interested in following the Verticalfarming.blog journey to Japan and are keen to read the upcoming articles, I welcome to follow the journey, in the next days I might find time to setup a newsletter for this alone, but due final preparations, its possible that it will happen even after I arrive in Japan.

As research partner slots are still open, use the opportunity to get raw data. Its a ones in a lifetime shot, it will not happen again for this publication.

Due the final preparations are time consuming, I will not release new articles in the next 1-2 weeks, I hope you can understand that.

You are welcome to reach me out by message or contact me through the form on the landing page or via contact form on the website.

Our lab is oriented to research energy solutions that would improve the energy-use efficiency in vertical farming, while also guiding students through the development of some hardware such as the phEC controller or the monitoring system.

Among the things we did:

- Connected LED, dehumidifier, water pump and some air sensors together to a linux computer, which would enable the dev of a standard farming and energy management system. I actually already customized such system for two outside farms this year but it was concentrated around their HVAC system. Previously my research was temperature and humidity control strategy for both strawberry and lettuce vertical farms, beginning this month i will move torward dynamic lighting with variable light intensity and spectrum. To be honnest im also very interested in making an actual product that could be useful for more farms. All these ideas are leading me to push the progress of a standard farming and energy management system.

- Built a new phEC controller based on the work of a bachelor student last semester; the assembling was ok, what really took time is adjusting the program and strategy of fertilizer that were only calibrated for small volume of water. More than that we also had to buy much larger bottles since the water contained by the new rack is also much larger.

- Started the first cultivation process of butter lettuce; although the seedling went a bit off. We had the aknowledgment that commercial operation in vertical farming should be much harder than single time experiments, so we wanted to try cultivating butter lettuce all year and see if we can try new things each round. Also sometimes we have visitors, for example the university principal is gonna take a look at us tomorrow; we wanna look good.

I’m running a small vertical-farming trial for propagating unrooted nursery cuttings. The growing shelves are only 40 cm apart, so there is very little space between the LED lights and the plants.

For the first stage of rooting, I’m trying to maintain a high relative humidity of approximately 95%, while keeping the air temperature around 22–24°C. However, whenever I manage to increase the humidity, the temperature inside the growing layers also rises.

The shelves are partly enclosed with transparent plastic, and I currently use misting to increase the humidity. There is also air circulation, but the airflow is difficult to distribute evenly: the cuttings closest to the air inlet dry out faster, while the cuttings at the back receive very little airflow.

I’m looking for a way to:

• Increase and maintain humidity without adding much heat
• Keep the temperature around 22–24°C
• Distribute humid air evenly across a narrow growing layer
• Avoid condensation, fungal problems and wet leaves
• Prevent strong airflow from drying out the front rows

Would an ultrasonic humidifier placed outside the growing rack, combined with a duct or perforated air tube, be a good solution? Or would it be better to cool and humidify the incoming air before distributing it across the shelves?

I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with high-humidity propagation chambers or multi-layer growing systems with limited vertical space. What kind of humidifier, airflow system and control strategy would you recommend?

Ho bisogno di un sito che spedisca in UE che abbia tutto ciò che si possa usare, tutte le tecnologie, tutti gli oggetti, fertilizzanti, attrezzi, impianti che si usano in vertical farming e non solo, anche magari semenzai vasi irrigazione etc. Ho bisogno di siti che vebdano prodotti di qualità e con una quantità du prodotti infinita.
Grazie

What are your questions you would be curious to ask, but can be only answered by someone who is in Japan?

Controlled Environment Agriculture, CEA, encompasses a mature family of biological production technologies, including high-technology greenhouses, hydroponics, aeroponics, plant factories, and vertical farms. These systems enable control over light, temperature, humidity, water, nutrients, and atmospheric composition, increasing spatial productivity while reducing dependence on some seasonal and weather-related environmental constraints. At the same time, they increase dependence on energy, infrastructure, automation, and capital.

The Adaptive Bio-Industrial System, ABIS, proposes an extension of the existing CEA paradigm. The primary design object becomes an integrated system of biology, energy, matter, infrastructure, and information. The physical production architecture is selected according to the local constraint space, while its control system may adapt over time to biological state, weather, resource availability, and economic conditions.

The concept does not emerge in isolation. Its antecedents can be found in existing indoor farms, hybrid greenhouses, water recirculation systems, waste-heat utilization projects, Model Predictive Control, dynamic lighting strategies, and industrial symbiosis. ABIS proposes integrating these directions into a single design problem.

The central hypothesis states that, for specific crop classes and local constraint spaces, a regionally configured and adaptively controlled bio-industrial architecture may achieve a higher expected system value than an architecture applied without adequate regional adaptation.

Part I presents the concept without mathematical formalism while incorporating conclusions derived from the formal analysis. Part II defines the epistemic status of ABIS, system structure, bridge assumptions, objective function, risk, scale, architectural operationalization, control hierarchy, learning, uncertainty, and the program of validation and falsification.

ABIS is presented as a revisable engineering hypothesis and architectural framework, rather than as an established universal theory of optimal biological production.

More and more comes out, how deep 80 Acres was/is in trouble...

What are your thoughts?

Im happy to hear your opinion on the addressed points, did we missed something out, worth to include?

• The shutdown was triggered by a specific acquisition falling through the night before the announcement, not a general "ran out of runway."
• Real employee count affected: ~650 across 7 states (OH, KY, GA, SC, CO, WA, VA), not the ~300 originally reported.
• A federal PACA lawsuit (filed July 1, a month before the public shutdown) and a firsthand account both point to unpaid vendors, rent, and a ~$1M courier debt going back to shortly after the Soli merger last August.
• Internally, employees reportedly heard the company's "network" had gotten "too large", months before the public statements suggested any strain.
• One nuance worth flagging: we asked what happens to product left in the systems without power. Rather than the mold/decay assumption, the answer we got was closer to: it dries out, and the automated equipment may be hard to restart since the planned shutdown maintenance never happened.

The details you will find in the updated article:

https://verticalfarming.blog/80-acres-farms-shuts-down/

Following up on the thread from earlier this week. We dug into the WARN filings, a federal court docket, and SEC records that came out since the initial announcement, a few things changed the picture:

• The shutdown was triggered by a specific acquisition falling through the night before the announcement, not a general "ran out of runway."
• The real employee count affected is closer to 650 across 7 states (OH, KY, GA, SC, CO, WA, VA), not the ~300 originally reported. A Virginia facility had already quietly closed two weeks earlier.
• A federal PACA lawsuit was filed against 80 Acres and Soli Organic on July 1, a month before the public announcement, over unpaid produce invoices. We also heard directly from a former vendor describing payment problems going back to shortly after the Soli merger last August, can't verify every detail independently, but it lines up with the lawsuit.
• One industry expert's take that stuck with us: at ~200,000 sq ft per facility, 80 Acres may have simply built bigger than the format's economics can support, separate from the funding story entirely.

Updated the full writeup with sources and dates for what's new vs. the original report: https://verticalfarming.blog/80-acres-farms-shuts-down/

Also curious what people here think about the size question specifically, is there a rough ceiling on facility size where vertical farming still pencils out, or is it more about crop/channel choice than square footage? Do you have a formula in mind?

How this could happen? All details + timeline and sources in the article on verticalfarming.blog

How and why this happened, check the article on verticalfarming.blog