But the new "ecological" agriculture also has its drawbacks

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The team created a vertical farm, grew greens in it, and sold them. It required a lot of manual labor to keep the farm running. The business didn't pay off because the greens were cheap.


Infarm co-founders Osnat Michaeli and Erez Galonska

To showcase their product to consumers, in 2014, Michaeli and the Galonska brothers took a 1955 Airstream trailer, turned it into a vertical farm, and placed it in a city garden association in Berlin's trendy Kreuzberg district.

There they talked about their activities, handed out salad and held seminars. Fresh greens began to attract consumers. The company had its first major clients - first a Berlin hotel, then a supermarket. They asked to make the same mini-farms for them.


Infarm trailer

That’s how Infarm got into modular farms. The devices are similar to vending machines: they have several rows of trays in which fresh greens and herbs are grown. The trays are fed with nutrient-rich water and illuminated by tiny LEDs.

The produce grows right in the devices in supermarkets: anyone czech republic number data can pick it and buy it. Mini-farms can be disassembled and assembled like giant Lego sets, where each component is compatible with the others.

Infarm received a $2.3 million grant from the European Union in 2016. The company received offers from supermarkets and restaurants throughout Germany, and then the rest of Europe.

In 2021, Infarm products can be purchased in 1,220 supermarkets of the Aldi, Carrefour and Marks & Spencer chains in Europe and Kroger in the US. Investors have invested a total of $315 million in the company.


Infarm farm in Edeka supermarket in Berlin

The company didn’t stop at making farms for supermarkets. In 2021, it installed grow chambers at its factory—four 18-meter-tall structures with shelves on which herbs grow.

Each structure replaces the equivalent of 10,000 m² of land and uses just five liters of water per kilogram of food - traditional farming requires about 322 liters per kilogram. Typically, there are just under 300 plants per chamber.

According to Infarm, one camera compared to field farming uses: