Who needs soil? Alaskan town turns to 'vertical farming' to grow green vegetables for the first time

ORIGINAL: DailyMail

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and SHIVALI BEST FOR MAILONLINE

4 November 2016

• Kotzebue is home to the first hydroponic farm north of the Arctic circle 
• Plants are stacked vertically and are rooted in materials such as rock wool 
• A glowing magenta LED light replaces the need for sunlight 
• The goal is to set up similar systems in other rural communities far from Alaska's minimal road system 

The landscape is virtually treeless around a coastal hub town above Alaska's Arctic Circle, where even summer temperatures are too cold for northern-growing forests to take root.

But amid these unforgiving conditions, a creative kind of farming is sprouting up in the community of Kotzebue.

A firm is growing green vegetables, including kale and basil, inside a 12-metre shipping container, equipped with glowing magenta LED lights.

The firm grows a range of green vegetables, but moving tender produce from its moist, warm growing enclosure to a frigid environment can be challenging

WHY USE HYDROPONICS? 

• An extreme form of growing crops in glasshouses is called hydroponics. 
• Soil is replaced by a mineral solution pumped around the plant roots.
• Removing the soil means there's no risk of soil organisms causing disease but the plants have to be supported.
• Monitoring and adjusting the concentrations of minerals in the solution enable the grower to control growth.
• It allows crops to be grown in regions where there's no soil. 

Arctic Greens is harvesting kale, various lettuces, basil and other greens weekly from the soil-free system and selling them at the supermarket in the community of nearly 3,300.

'We're learning,' Will Anderson, president of the Native Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corp (Arctic Greens), said of the business launched last spring. 'We're not a farming culture.'

The venture is the first of its kind north of the Arctic Circle, according to the manufacturer of Kotzebue's pesticide-free system. 

The goal is to set up similar systems in partnerships with other rural communities far from Alaska's minimal road system — where steeply priced vegetables can be more than a week in transit and past their prime by the time they arrive at local shops.

There are other tools for extending the short growing season in a state with cold soil. 

One increasingly popular method involves high tunnels, tall hoop-shaped structures that cover crops.

But the season can last year-round with indoor hydroponics, which uses water and nutrients to grow vertically stacked plants rooted in a binding material such as rock wool.

Members of a local Alaska Native corporation board watch the first crop planting inside the corporation's new indoor hydroponics farm

A firm is growing green vegetables in Kotzebue, Alaska, including kale and basil, inside a 12-metre shipping container, equipped with glowing magenta LED lights

Anchorage-based Vertical Harvest Hydroponics, which builds enclosed systems out of transformed shipping containers, partnered with Kikiktagruk. 

The two-year-old company also sold the system to a farmer in the rural town of Dillingham.

'Our vision is that this can be a long-term solution to the food shortage problems in the north,' said Ron Perpich, a company founder. 'We're hoping that we can put systems anywhere that there's people.'

But the operations have challenges, including steep price tags. 

Startup costs in Kotzebue were around $200,000 (£160,000), including the customized freight container and the price to fly it in a C-130 transport plane from Anchorage, 550 miles to the southeast.

The town also relies heavily on expensive diesel power, so operations could eat into profits.

In addition, moving tender produce from its moist, warm growing enclosure to a frigid environment can be challenging. 

The season can last year-round with indoor hydroponics, which uses water and nutrients to grow vertically stacked plants rooted in a binding material such as rock wool

And farming can be a largely foreign concept to Native communities with deeply imbedded traditions of hunting and gathering.

Still, the potential benefits outweigh the downsides, according to Johanna Herron, state market access and food safety manager.

Grown with the correct nutrient balance, hydroponics produce is considered just as safe as crops grown using other methods.

'It's not the only solution,' Ms Herron said. 'Hydroponics is just a piece of it, but certainly an excellent thing for communities to look into.'

THE DOWNSIDE OF HYDROPONICS 

• The operations have challenges, including steep price tags. 
• Startup costs in Kotzebue were around $200,000 (£160,000), including the customized freight container and the price to fly it in a C-130 transport plane from Anchorage, 550 miles to the southeast.
• The town also relies heavily on expensive diesel power, so operations could eat into profits.
• In addition, moving tender produce from its moist, warm growing enclosure to a frigid environment can be challenging. 
• And farming can be a largely foreign concept to Native communities with deeply imbedded traditions of hunting and gathering.

For now, the new business is operating as a prototype, especially as it enters the long, harsh winter season in Kotzebue.

The town, the regional hub for northwest Alaska villages, is built on a three-mile-long spit, and many there live a subsistence lifestyle. 

The community has a chronically high unemployment rate, with the school district, state and local hospital among its major employers.

For now, the biggest selling point of the hydroponics produce is freshness. 

Prices are parallel with greens brought up from the Lower 48.

But operators are trying to work out kinks and find ways to lower energy costs, possibly through such alternatives as wind power, according to Mr Anderson.

'We want to be a benefit to the community,' he said. 'Not only do we want fresher produce, but affordable produce.' 

Kotzebue is the regional hub for northwest Alaska villages, and built on a three-mile-long spit on the west coast