BrightFarms' Paul Lighfoot says rooftop farm is 'a foolish endeavor'
Building farms on city rooftops is “a foolish endeavor” because of the higher costs and the additional time for permitting, said Paul Lightfoot, chief executive of BrightFarms. The firm, which has raised more than $25 million in equity and more than $15 million in project finance, is now focusing on greenhouse farms in locations outside of urban centers.
“You would scale very slowly, and waste investors’ money,” Mr. Lightfoot said of city projects. The cost for the Washington, D.C., facility would have been nearly 20% more than an $8.5 million greenhouse it instead built in suburban Virginia, he added.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal