DAVIS, Calif., June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Bowery Farming, the largest vertical farming company in the U.S, and Unfold, an industry leading seed and digital solutions company advancing the vertical farming industry, today announced a partnership to create great tasting, locally produced vegetables through new seed varieties.
Controlled environmental agriculture needs deep collaborations, like Unfold and Bowery’s, to unlock the immense potential value of the industry. The lack of broadly available industry expertise has caused many vertical farms to rely on suboptimal seeds, receiving a lower return on investment for their produce.
Bowery’s world-class team of agricultural scientists and engineers will partner with Unfold’s leading plant biology experts, and leverage its digital tools, germplasm and best-of-breed seeds to cultivate new plant varieties for its customers.
“The partnership will give us an even stronger foundation to address the biggest food challenges facing our world, from sustainability and food security to year-round access to nutritious produce,” said Henry Sztul, Chief Science Officer, Bowery. “With our R&D team working alongside Unfold, we will expand the wide variety of crops we can grow in Bowery’s indoor controlled environments, which will ultimately benefit the broader industry.”
The resulting plant varieties will increase Bowery’s produce output while lowering the production costs, making vegetables more accessible to everyone. Bowery has identified two new higher-yielding Romaine varieties available exclusively from Unfold that it aims to trial in early 2023.
Core to this collaboration is a joint priority around sustainability. Working alongside Unfold, vegetable varieties that require less time and energy to produce while maintaining the traits valued by consumers like crunch, color and taste are now possible.
“We don’t see ourselves as another seed provider. We strive to operate as a powerful complement to our partners’ R&D teams and provide deep collaborations that will result in quicker, more targeted innovation,” said John Purcell, CEO and President, Unfold. “We are still in the burgeoning stages of vertical farming, but I’m convinced that with industry partnerships like the one between Unfold and Bowery, we’ll improve the long term success of the industry.”
To learn more about Unfold’s Innovation Partner Program please visit https://unfold.ag/.
About Unfold
Unfold is accelerating the “seed to table” capabilities of vertical farming with an integrated offering of superior seeds, digital services, and agronomic insight. Based in Davis, California, Unfold’s mission is to create a world where the freshest, most nutritious, and most delicious produce is available to every person on the planet. For additional information about Unfold or to hear about potential career opportunities, please visit our website at https://unfold.ag/.
About Bowery Farming
Founded in 2015, Bowery Farming is on a mission to democratize access to high-quality, local, safe, and sustainable produce. Bowery builds smart indoor farms near cities, growing fresher, pesticide-free Protected Produce with bold flavor in precisely controlled environments, 365 days a year. At the heart of the farm is the proprietary BoweryOS, which integrates software, hardware, sensors, AI, computer vision systems, machine learning models, and robotics to orchestrate and automate the entirety of its operations. As a result, each farm creates far less waste and uses a fraction of the water and land compared to traditional agriculture.
Based in New York City, Bowery is the largest vertical farming company in the United States, serving major e-commerce platforms and more than 1,000 grocery stores in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, including Albertsons Companies (Safeway and Acme), Amazon Fresh, Giant Food, Walmart, Wakefern, Weis, Whole Food Markets, and specialty grocers, with produce that’s harvested year-round at peak freshness, delivered within days of harvest.
Bowery has raised more than $497 million in equity funding from leading investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Temasek, GV (formerly Google Ventures), General Catalyst, GGV Capital, First Round Capital, and individuals including Jeff Wilke, as well as some of the foremost thought leaders in food, including Tom Colicchio, José Andrés, and David Barber of Blue Hill.
Press Contact – Unfold
Andrea Judson-Torres
unfold@highwirepr.com
Press Contact – Bowery Farming
Graham James
gjames@boweryfarming.com
