Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker).

As we provide the news for free, we are relying on revenues from our banners. So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.
Thanks!

Click here for a guide on disabling your adblocker.

Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber
“Good for marketing and PR, but ROI may prove to be a significant challenge”

Will Target's in-store farms be sustainable?

Target is looking to shorten the distance from farm to plate with a planned test of vertical farms. The initiative, to take place within select U.S. stores, is part of ongoing research and development being pursued by Target’s Food + Future CoLab, a collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and Ideo launched last November that has been exploring urban farming, food transparency and food innovation. According to Business Insider, tests of the vertical farms could begin in spring 2017.

At least one other grocer has pursued such an endeavor in the U.S. In 2013, Whole Foods’ Gowanus, Brooklyn location opened a 20,000-plus square foot rooftop greenhouse in conjunction with the farm startup, Gotham Greens. The garden grows more than 200,000 pounds of leafy greens, herbs and tomatoes yearly.

In an online discussion, many of the industry insiders of the RetailWire BrainTrust were excited at the prospects of Target sourcing produce from an in-house farm. However, some BrainTrust members saw Target’s attempt at agricultural sustainability as being harder to pull off than they might imagine.

“Good for marketing and PR, but the scalability, execution and ultimately the ROI may prove to be a significant challenge,” said Peter Sobotta, founder and CEO of Return Logic. “That said, I like the concept and it is a step in a good direction.”

Read more at Forbes
Publication date: