The number of urban, indoor and warehouse agricultural operations in the U.S. has grown significantly over the last two years. According to a new white paper that was presented on the first day of the 5th Indoor Ag-Con in Las Vegas this Wednesday, there are currently 56 warehouse farms, plant factories and rooftop greenhouses across the US, compared to only 15 in a previous report of March 2015.
This growth was also reflected in the atmosphere of the first day of the 5th annual Indoor Ag-Con that is being held this week on Wednesday and Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. While not very crowded, the event has grown this year and brings together the industry's best suppliers, researchers, growers, investors and other professionals from the food industry.
And while it remains a cliché to say that this industry is still young, it is growing up fast and is clearly looking more at the overall business management side of growing indoors. Therefore the first day of the event covered a number of business related topics such as real estate development, planning, management and funding. As well as this, several expert speakers shared their vision on how automation and crop selection can increase the efficiency of indoor farming and make businesses profitable.
While the first day also covered a few technical topics, the speaker program on the second day will provide more emphasis into technical aspects of indoor growing.
We will be back with more reports on the event and the presentations over the coming days. On Monday we will publish a complete photo report of the conference and exhibition.
The white paper will be available for download shortly.