Great companies are often built because of great and innovative ideas presented by great leaders.
Such is the case with AeroFarms. Listening to a presentation at Association for Corporate Growth New Jersey by that company’s Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer Marc Oshima, I was struck by the significant impact they are having on so many different levels.
The vision of everyone involved with this company is far greater than the mere exploration of new ways to grow food in a city environment.
Growing tasty, safe and pesticide free greens and other crops is actually just the first step for this game-changing organization.The other aspects that are integral to the AeroFarm process include:
- Local access of fresh produce (eliminating the food deserts that dot our landscape)
- Grow environmentally sustainable produce
- Offer produce that is nutritionally dense
- Grow produce with 95% less water, no soil or sun (conserving on scarce resources)
- Create foods that are really delicious (no salad dressing needed!)
- No pests or weeds –so no pesticides necessary
- Leverage data analytics, science and technology for predictive modeling
- Use statistics to revolutionize farming
- Increase consumption of produce because of the great taste, interesting flavors
- Create a seed to package process that eliminates the supply chain
- Vitalize neighborhoods, create jobs and shape behavior by locating farms in vulnerable communities
- Develop strategic partners (including chefs) with a shared long term vision
Although it is an extraordinary company, this blog is not really about the many diverse, amazing attributes of AeroFarms.
Actually what I find so fascinating is the way they are creating a new paradigm on how to feed the planet as we all learn to do more with less.
As we look to business leaders who are working to solve many of the issues we face today and will be facing tomorrow, we must admire the ability of the AeroFarm founders to find so many different ways to add value – starting by growing delicious kale and ending up by changing lives.