[Applause]
think about the best juiciest sweetest
tomato you’ve ever had in your life
where were you who are you with I was in
my grandpa’s garden that by the way is
really me a few years ago
I was four or five it was summer seems
now like it was always 75 and sunny
I remember those tomatoes like they were
yesterday they were sweet they were
juicy they were ripe they were
incredible I’d be running around with my
brother and sister and I’d sneak into a
garden to get some of those Tomatoes
they were clean – my grandpa never used
any pesticides so I could just pop him
right off of the vine and pop them into
my mouth and enjoy him right there those
tomatoes were growing would love and
they tested like sunshine you ever had
it tomato like that yeah it’s hard to
get a tomato like that today though
because even though we all want fresh
produce 365 days a year it doesn’t grow
where most of us live most of our fruits
and vegetables come from California or
Florida and they have to come all the
way across the country the issue is that
with all the droughts and all the
expensive land and just lack of
available land we have to import more
and more produce from other countries
that’s a few more food miles so what
what’s the big deal why does that make
your tomato in a grocery store so
tasteless well remember my grandpa’s
tomato that’s sweet juicy fully ripened
tomato you can transfer that tomato all
the way across the country just London
lush so food companies have invented a
way to make our produce more durable so
that they can handle thousands of miles
of transport here’s how they do it first
of all our produce is first bred for
durability and transportation not for
flavor and nutrition then it’s harvested
way before it’s ripe it’s big one’s
green hard so it can make that transport
now these tomatoes will be treated with
ethylene and they will look red so
they’ll look like something you actually
want to eat but the problem is you’re
still eating the same unripe and tomato
that’s why your grocery store tomato
doesn’t taste that good
now before I forget and this is
important make sure you wash your
Tomatoes USDA has found residue from 35
different pesticides on your average
grocery store tomato even the organic
ones just because something is labeled
organic does not mean it’s pesticide
free so how do I know all this well for
last 20 plus years I’ve been running
supply chains just like this one for
some of the top food companies in North
America if you take a look at that
that’s a lot of steps and a lot of
people touching your food and a lot of
food miles that your produce has to
travel to get from farm to your table in
US alone I don’t know if you guys
realize this or not but 160 billion
dollars of food last year could not make
this trip and was wasted your produce
loses 45 percent of its nutritional
value from the time it is harvested at
the farm until it reaches your table
once again that’s why you don’t have
your produce lasting very long once you
get it to your refrigerator there has to
be a better way well there is a better
way there’s a much better way to farm
today what if I told you that we could
get that tomato from farm to your table
in one day what if I told you that we
could do that and use 97 percent less
water and absolutely no pesticides what
if I told you that we could grow 80
acres worth of produce in a small
building in the middle of a city
eliminating most of the food miles and
drastically reducing food waste that’ll
be the most disruptive thing to happen
to the food industry it would change the
way we eat well the reason this is so
critical right now is our planet will be
a home to nine point eight billion
people by 2050 that’s 2.2 billion more
mouths to feed in just the next couple
of years the only way we can do it is we
have to learn to farm 365 days a year
rain or shine we have to learn to grow a
lot more produce and a lot less land
using a lot less Natural Resources to
that’s exactly what we’re doing in
Cincinnati Ohio in Springdale Arkansas
in Granite Falls North Carolina and in
Daphne Alabama today and every day we
grow indoors locally and hydroponically
this 1/4 acre facility just five miles
from downtown Cincinnati produces 80
acres worth of fruits and vegetables we
have built the first in the world set of
girls owns vine crop girl zones to grow
tomatoes cucumbers peppers and other
vine crops that can grow completely love
pesticides that we can let them ripen on
the vine and deliver them within day
anywhere we have essentially built a
next generation of vertical farms
because what we’re able to do is not
only grow the widest variety of produce
but we’re able to unleash the highest
nutritional potential from your plants
we built a variety of grow zones that
are specifically designed for each crop
type unique crop type that we grow we
filter our air in water real time
sometimes as frequently as every 80
seconds we feed the plants to provide
the best cleanest nutrients so that then
you can eat the cleanest healthiest
plants how do our growers do it how do
they create this perfect environment for
the plants to grow in well it all begins
with a seed first of all we look for
seed varieties that have the highest
flavor and highest nutritional profile
not that can handle the transportation
cycle second we plant those seeds and
once they germinate we transplant them
into a girl zone just like this at this
point plant needs for things to thrive
plants need water nutrients co2 or
carbon dioxide and they need energy now
notice I didn’t say sunlight we were
always
Sonlight but what is sunlight sunlight
is just a bunch of energy it’s just a
bunch of photons shooting down from the
Sun coming down to the earth hitting the
plant leaves and plant leaves use it to
drive photosynthesis you see a lot of
purple light in our girl zones purple
light is just a combination of red LED
light primarily and some blue LED light
the reason for the red LEDs and the
reason we use so many of them also goes
back to your eighth-grade science we
learned in eighth grade science that to
try photosynthesis plants need energy to
break apart that co2 molecule energy is
required it’s combined with water
releases oxygen and forms these sugar
molecules which will later eat the
energy required to break apart the co2
molecule comes to us in a 680 nanometer
wavelength which happens to be the
spectrum for red light that’s why we use
red light LEDs that is the most
efficient way to photosynthesize for
plants and we’ve tested a lot of ways by
the way we also provide our plants with
the right nutrients at the right stage
of their growth just like you wouldn’t
feed your babies the same food that you
would feed your teenagers we provide a
special recipe for a young plants and as
our plants grow and mature their dietary
needs change and our recipes change with
them farming indoors is all about
managing and maintaining your
environment a very delicate balance
within your environment our plants act
like little pumps they suck up all the
water and nutrients that we give them
hydroponically they use it and they
process they take whatever they need
whatever they don’t need they trans
evaporate or breathe out we capture that
trans evaporation condense it and check
for the nutrient composition in that
condensation we essentially know what we
feed the plants and we know what they
breathe out therefore we know what they
consume than they ate so we can
replenish only what they need that is
why we farm so sustainably we waste
absolutely nothing everything is
restricted and clean constantly now it’s
time to harvest those beautiful Tomatoes
we let our tomatoes ripen on a vine and
we do so to first let them reach their
full maturity to get the full flavor
potential and to get all the nutritional
value that they can to maximize that and
we can also do it because we’re not
shipping their Tomatoes all over the
country we farm locally we sell locally
now remember I told you just a few
minutes ago that we can get that tomato
and other produce from farm-to-table in
one day well here it is for the last
year actually over the last year we’ve
been selling our freshly harvested
produce to dozens of retailers and your
local restaurants in in all of our
locations next time you bite into a
tomato do think about where it come from
and do think about what role you want to
play in this food revolution now let’s
imagine for a minute a world where our
kids crave the sweet juicy perfectly
ripe tomatoes as much as they crave
candy today a future where instead of
taking insulin shots we can use salad a
future where we will place our grow
zones all over the world from
sub-saharan Africa to the Middle East
feeding our populations where they’re
growing regardless of their natural
environmental conditions or availability
of resources taking a small but critical
step towards ending world hunger I stand
in front of you today because 40 years
ago my grandfather inspired me with that
little tomato to begin a career in food
I’ve worked hard for the last 25 years
to bring good food to people everywhere
I never dreamt that at this point in my
career I’d be farming in the middle of a
city I never dreamt that heads of state
would be calling me asking me to build
farms to help and feed their people I
never dreamt that I’ll be part of the
next food revolution
these ideas these visions these dreams
are not just dreams anymore we’re making
them a reality right here in Cincinnati
Ohio every day one tomato at a time thank you
think about the best juiciest sweetest
tomato you’ve ever had in your life
where were you who are you with I was in
my grandpa’s garden that by the way is
really me a few years ago
I was four or five it was summer seems
now like it was always 75 and sunny
I remember those tomatoes like they were
yesterday they were sweet they were
juicy they were ripe they were
incredible I’d be running around with my
brother and sister and I’d sneak into a
garden to get some of those Tomatoes
they were clean – my grandpa never used
any pesticides so I could just pop him
right off of the vine and pop them into
my mouth and enjoy him right there those
tomatoes were growing would love and
they tested like sunshine you ever had
it tomato like that yeah it’s hard to
get a tomato like that today though
because even though we all want fresh
produce 365 days a year it doesn’t grow
where most of us live most of our fruits
and vegetables come from California or
Florida and they have to come all the
way across the country the issue is that
with all the droughts and all the
expensive land and just lack of
available land we have to import more
and more produce from other countries
that’s a few more food miles so what
what’s the big deal why does that make
your tomato in a grocery store so
tasteless well remember my grandpa’s
tomato that’s sweet juicy fully ripened
tomato you can transfer that tomato all
the way across the country just London
lush so food companies have invented a
way to make our produce more durable so
that they can handle thousands of miles
of transport here’s how they do it first
of all our produce is first bred for
durability and transportation not for
flavor and nutrition then it’s harvested
way before it’s ripe it’s big one’s
green hard so it can make that transport
now these tomatoes will be treated with
ethylene and they will look red so
they’ll look like something you actually
want to eat but the problem is you’re
still eating the same unripe and tomato
that’s why your grocery store tomato
doesn’t taste that good
now before I forget and this is
important make sure you wash your
Tomatoes USDA has found residue from 35
different pesticides on your average
grocery store tomato even the organic
ones just because something is labeled
organic does not mean it’s pesticide
free so how do I know all this well for
last 20 plus years I’ve been running
supply chains just like this one for
some of the top food companies in North
America if you take a look at that
that’s a lot of steps and a lot of
people touching your food and a lot of
food miles that your produce has to
travel to get from farm to your table in
US alone I don’t know if you guys
realize this or not but 160 billion
dollars of food last year could not make
this trip and was wasted your produce
loses 45 percent of its nutritional
value from the time it is harvested at
the farm until it reaches your table
once again that’s why you don’t have
your produce lasting very long once you
get it to your refrigerator there has to
be a better way well there is a better
way there’s a much better way to farm
today what if I told you that we could
get that tomato from farm to your table
in one day what if I told you that we
could do that and use 97 percent less
water and absolutely no pesticides what
if I told you that we could grow 80
acres worth of produce in a small
building in the middle of a city
eliminating most of the food miles and
drastically reducing food waste that’ll
be the most disruptive thing to happen
to the food industry it would change the
way we eat well the reason this is so
critical right now is our planet will be
a home to nine point eight billion
people by 2050 that’s 2.2 billion more
mouths to feed in just the next couple
of years the only way we can do it is we
have to learn to farm 365 days a year
rain or shine we have to learn to grow a
lot more produce and a lot less land
using a lot less Natural Resources to
that’s exactly what we’re doing in
Cincinnati Ohio in Springdale Arkansas
in Granite Falls North Carolina and in
Daphne Alabama today and every day we
grow indoors locally and hydroponically
this 1/4 acre facility just five miles
from downtown Cincinnati produces 80
acres worth of fruits and vegetables we
have built the first in the world set of
girls owns vine crop girl zones to grow
tomatoes cucumbers peppers and other
vine crops that can grow completely love
pesticides that we can let them ripen on
the vine and deliver them within day
anywhere we have essentially built a
next generation of vertical farms
because what we’re able to do is not
only grow the widest variety of produce
but we’re able to unleash the highest
nutritional potential from your plants
we built a variety of grow zones that
are specifically designed for each crop
type unique crop type that we grow we
filter our air in water real time
sometimes as frequently as every 80
seconds we feed the plants to provide
the best cleanest nutrients so that then
you can eat the cleanest healthiest
plants how do our growers do it how do
they create this perfect environment for
the plants to grow in well it all begins
with a seed first of all we look for
seed varieties that have the highest
flavor and highest nutritional profile
not that can handle the transportation
cycle second we plant those seeds and
once they germinate we transplant them
into a girl zone just like this at this
point plant needs for things to thrive
plants need water nutrients co2 or
carbon dioxide and they need energy now
notice I didn’t say sunlight we were
always
Sonlight but what is sunlight sunlight
is just a bunch of energy it’s just a
bunch of photons shooting down from the
Sun coming down to the earth hitting the
plant leaves and plant leaves use it to
drive photosynthesis you see a lot of
purple light in our girl zones purple
light is just a combination of red LED
light primarily and some blue LED light
the reason for the red LEDs and the
reason we use so many of them also goes
back to your eighth-grade science we
learned in eighth grade science that to
try photosynthesis plants need energy to
break apart that co2 molecule energy is
required it’s combined with water
releases oxygen and forms these sugar
molecules which will later eat the
energy required to break apart the co2
molecule comes to us in a 680 nanometer
wavelength which happens to be the
spectrum for red light that’s why we use
red light LEDs that is the most
efficient way to photosynthesize for
plants and we’ve tested a lot of ways by
the way we also provide our plants with
the right nutrients at the right stage
of their growth just like you wouldn’t
feed your babies the same food that you
would feed your teenagers we provide a
special recipe for a young plants and as
our plants grow and mature their dietary
needs change and our recipes change with
them farming indoors is all about
managing and maintaining your
environment a very delicate balance
within your environment our plants act
like little pumps they suck up all the
water and nutrients that we give them
hydroponically they use it and they
process they take whatever they need
whatever they don’t need they trans
evaporate or breathe out we capture that
trans evaporation condense it and check
for the nutrient composition in that
condensation we essentially know what we
feed the plants and we know what they
breathe out therefore we know what they
consume than they ate so we can
replenish only what they need that is
why we farm so sustainably we waste
absolutely nothing everything is
restricted and clean constantly now it’s
time to harvest those beautiful Tomatoes
we let our tomatoes ripen on a vine and
we do so to first let them reach their
full maturity to get the full flavor
potential and to get all the nutritional
value that they can to maximize that and
we can also do it because we’re not
shipping their Tomatoes all over the
country we farm locally we sell locally
now remember I told you just a few
minutes ago that we can get that tomato
and other produce from farm-to-table in
one day well here it is for the last
year actually over the last year we’ve
been selling our freshly harvested
produce to dozens of retailers and your
local restaurants in in all of our
locations next time you bite into a
tomato do think about where it come from
and do think about what role you want to
play in this food revolution now let’s
imagine for a minute a world where our
kids crave the sweet juicy perfectly
ripe tomatoes as much as they crave
candy today a future where instead of
taking insulin shots we can use salad a
future where we will place our grow
zones all over the world from
sub-saharan Africa to the Middle East
feeding our populations where they’re
growing regardless of their natural
environmental conditions or availability
of resources taking a small but critical
step towards ending world hunger I stand
in front of you today because 40 years
ago my grandfather inspired me with that
little tomato to begin a career in food
I’ve worked hard for the last 25 years
to bring good food to people everywhere
I never dreamt that at this point in my
career I’d be farming in the middle of a
city I never dreamt that heads of state
would be calling me asking me to build
farms to help and feed their people I
never dreamt that I’ll be part of the
next food revolution
these ideas these visions these dreams
are not just dreams anymore we’re making
them a reality right here in Cincinnati
Ohio every day one tomato at a time thank you
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