The great indoors: Why companies, nonprofits are turning to vertical farms to boost North Texas food supply
Cameron Grant, Assistant Grower at Eden Green Technology
An excerpt from Fort Worth Report
Cameron Grant thought he would work in the crop fields of California when he started studying vegetable production at Texas A&M University.
Then he saw the downsides of the industry.
“I saw … the amount of pesticides that are used on our production, and then the amount of water that goes into it, the amount of fertilizers and chemicals,” Grant said. “And it’s just not a sustainable practice.”
Instead of fields, Grant now monitors nutrients, growing conditions and lighting of leafy greens on robotic vines that ascend to the ceiling of a greenhouse.
“You can control everything, so you can kind of create the perfect environment,” Grant said.
As an assistant grower at Eden Green Technology in Cleburne, Grant is working in the burgeoning industry of vertical farming: crops that are grown in vertical rows instead of across fields.