BrightFarms Review
BrightFarms is a company that finances, designs, builds, and operates greenhouse farms near supermarkets, helping supermarkets offer fresh produce while reducing transportation costs. Here’s our review of the company.
What is BrightFarms?
BrightFarms is a company that finances, designs, builds, and operates greenhouse farms at or near supermarkets. The idea behind BrightFarms is to cut time, distance, and cost from the produce supply chain.
With BrightFarms, customers can get fresher, locally-grown produce while supermarkets can reduce supply costs.
The company was founded in 2011. Since it was founded, the company has been “on a quest to bring commercial scale urban agriculture to the market” while also taking “our farms and the industry to the next level” and changing the way we eat as a society, explains the official BrightFarms website.
BrightFarms Farms
Today, BrightFarms operates state-of-the-art greenhouse farms across America. The company claims to grow “millions of thousands of pounds of the freshest, most flavorful local produce year-round at these farms.”
The farms are specially designed and engineered to have a low-impact on the environment. They minimize agricultural runoff, for example, and are designed to conserve natural resources like land and water.
They also reduce greenhouse gas by reducing the amount of travel required to bring the produce from the farm to the supermarkets.
One final benefit of BrightFarms farms is that they provide “green collar jobs” for local farmers, helping to spur local economies and keep money circulating within a region.
All farms rely on hydroponics systems, which we’ll explain below. Some of the company’s largest farms include:
— Bucks County, PA: BrightFarms signed the grocery industry’s first long-term Produce Purchase Agreement (PPA) with local supermarket McCaffrey’s Market.
— Culpeper County, VA: This large farm in northern Virginia is designed to service all of the DC and Potomac metro areas. It’s 120,000 square feet in size and promises to be “one of the most productive lettuce greenhouses in the world.” BrightFarms signed an agreement with local supermarket Giant Food Stores in 2014 and delivered its first locally-grown harvests in December 2015.
— Rochelle, IL: BrightFarms signed an agreement with Roundy’s in Illinois to provide fresh produce to Mariano’s grown exclusively at a BrightFarms greenhouse.
You can get specific details about each of these farms here. Each farm has its own website and BrightFarms is open and honest about how the farm operates, what it looks like, and where your food is grown.
How Do BrightFarms Farms Work?
BrightFarms designs its farms to be extremely land and water efficient. They also exist entirely within greenhouses and rely on hydroponic systems. Water is circulated and recirculated throughout this environmental, allowing the farms to use less water on less land than conventional agriculture.
Plus, there’s no agricultural runoff.
Ultimately, this leads to approximately 7 times less water usage than a conventional farm (although the company claims they use 25 times less water when growing tomatoes compared to a conventional farm).
The farms also pride themselves on higher yields per square foot than traditional agriculture. Lettuce, tomatoes, and herb production is significantly higher when using hydroponic systems, for example.
Growing food in a controlled environment also allows BrightFarms to operate year-round while controlling pests, disease, climate, and temperatures.
All crops are grown in a soil-less medium. Using this medium, BrightFarms can add the perfect amount of water and nutrients to each specific crop.
Their pest management system, by the way, is described as an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) solution. That solution involves using “beneficials”, which are the good insects (like ladybugs) to control the predator pests, which are the bad insects (like whitefly, aphids, spidermites, and leafminers).
Types of BrightFarms Produce Available
BrightFarms produce has been popping up in supermarkets across the country, where it’s packaged in clear plastic containers featuring the BrightFarms logo. Produce currently available through the company includes:
- Super Sweet Local Spring Mix
- Fresh & Tasty Local Baby Spinach
- Subtly Spicy Local Baby Arugula
- Bright & Healthy Local Baby Kale
- Tenderly Sweet Local Spinach Blend
- Perfectly Zesty Local Asian Greens
- Deliciously Sweet Local Basil
- Sweet Treat Local Mini Tomatoes
- Truly Tasty Local Cocktail Tomatoes
- Best Ever Local Tomatoes
As you can see, all BrightFarms products feature the word “local” on the packaging. If you’re wondering how to integrate this produce into your normal meals, then the official BrightFarms website actually has an entire section devoted to recipes you can make using the foods listed above.
About BrightFarms
BrightFarms is a New York-based company located at the following address:
21 W 46th Street, Suite 1109
New York, NY 10036
The company is led by Chairman Dr. Ted Caplow, described as “a visionary and pioneer in the field of rooftop sustainable greenhouse development.”
Dr. Caplow founded New York Sun Works in 2006 to promote the use of hydroponic systems in urban environments as a way to sustainably grow local produce. He has also extensively published articles in a wide range of environmental journals.
How to Buy BrightFarms Products
The official BrightFarms website has a store locator [BrightFarms.com] you can use to find stores near you that sell BrightFarms products.
As mentioned above, the company’s major hubs are in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington D.C. Although BrightFarms products are currently only available on the eastern seaboard, the company is seeking to expand across America.
