One-line solution summary:
Plant, Harvest, Serve
Pitch your solution.
Seed to Plate aims to solve the issues of carbon and water waste. We want to reduce waste and drastically shrink the amount of water used to grow food by building vertical farming warehouses that would also eliminate the need for massive amounts of land. The food grown in the warehouses would go directly to the Seed to Plate restaurant, located right beside each other. This reduces the need for transportation, again lessening the carbon footprint of our food. The food unable to be grown in the warehouses would be transported from local farms. The restaurant will be a ghost kitchen that only provides service in the form of delivery or take out, all of which is ordered online. Expanding internationally is in the future of Seed to Plate. Seed to Plate would be beneficial in countries with limited farming land, water availability and money.
What specific problem are you solving?
We are solving the problem of sustainable food systems.
What is your solution?
Our solution is to use vertical farming. Vertical farms are built upwards, with stacks of crops. The lighting is strictly controlled as is the temperature to create a perfect environment for the crops to grow. Our farms will produce crops twice as fast as regular farms, and use 40% less power. They have 80% less food waste because of the control farmers have, and have less risk because crops are protected. Vertical farming is inherently more sustainable than regular farming, because the productivity per unit of land, as crops are stacked vertically, is much higher. There are also no transportation costs, and the water and energy used in the building can be easily recycled. The water used in our farms will be 95% less than the water used in regular farms on average. The method used will specifically be hydroponic watering. Hydroponic techniques use nutrient rich solutions to grow plants in rather than normal soil. The idea is to allow roots to come into direct contact with the solution, and still have access to oxygen. This technique of growing causes plants to mature 25% faster than in regular soil.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our target population will be all people in Phoenix, specifically those who live in the urban areas around Seed to Plate. However, because our restaurant is only delivery or take out, it will be very easy to cater to people outside of our immediate vicinity. We want to deliver to the demands of people who are now realizing that take out food is the future. In the wake of COVID-19, we have seen a massive 70% increase in people ordering delivery from their favorite restaurants. Our solution is a sustainable, environmentally friendly, healthy and tasty one that will deliver food to people in all parts of Phoenix.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Improve supply chain practices to reduce food loss, scale new business models for producer-market connections, and create low-carbon cold chainsWho is the primary delegate for your solution?
George Gebran
What is your solution’s stage of development?
Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business modelIn what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Phoenix, AZ, USAWhich of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or processDescribe what makes your solution innovative.
Seed to Plate is aiming to bring two novel ideas in the food industry together: vertical farming and ghost kitchens. By creating a farm in an urban space that is right next to it’s own restaurant, we are taking steps forward in both the restaurant and farming industries. There are other vertical farms, and other ghost kitchens in the United States, but never before have the two been combined efficiently. The future will be rooted in technology based restaurants, and the trends of take-out becoming more popular will only continue to prevail. By catering to those needs in a manner that produces sustainable food, and minimizes carbon emissions and water waste, we are creating an innovative solution to a prevalent issue.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
The technology that we will be using to power our vertical farms is the hydroponic farming technology. Hydroponics is a type of technology that is already used in vertical farms across the world. It has been proven to be a faster and better way to grow produce. Hydroponic farming is even being used by the United Nations in countries where people suffer from severe food shortages. Hydroponics provides plants with a constant, controlled flow of nutrient solution that has been specifically designed to give produce exactly the amount of nutrients it needs. There is no soil involved, so there is no need to worry about space, weeds, or pathogens. The temperature is always controlled because crops are indoors, which means that there will never be destroyed crops because of natural disasters, insects, or droughts. Produce is able to be grown year round, without weather impacting the farm. The hydroponics is put into use in our vertical farms, which are all technology based in order for the environment to be strictly controlled.
Provide evidence that this technology works.
Hydroponics technology is already very popular in many places. As stated before, the United Nations has used hydroponics technology in poor areas of the world that suffer from food shortages. Vertical farming has also recently sprung up in many places. Most notably, one of the largest vertical farms in the world is being built in Dubai. This is going to have major impacts on the city’s ability to grow their own food, seeing as 85% of their current food supply is imported. In Phoneix, vertical farming has sprung up in some more suburban areas. Farmers have found the aspects of controlling environments when it comes to vertical farming are extremely beneficial in a dry, hot place like Arizona.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
Our solution is currently not into practice yet, and therefore is not serving anyone yet. We hope that Seed to Plate will be serving the entirety of the Phoenix area within the next few years, which is comprised of almost 1.66 million people. Ideally, we will be able to expand into international business in places like Lebanon within the next ten or so years, and build in the cities of Beirut (almost 400,000 people) and other urban areas.
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar modelsHow many years have you worked on your solution?
6 months
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, or to other organizations?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)Why are you applying to Solve?
We are applying to Solve because we would love to have the support and recognition of these life changing technologies that could benefit so many urban areas. We want to present a solution to the problems of limited land and water waste in the farming industry that will help to bring about a sustainable future.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Please explain in more detail here.
We want to be able to spread our ideas across the world. We want people to hear about the benefits of hydroponics and vertical farming, and we want to be able to serve people in urban cities that often have limited farming space. In order to achieve our goals, we need exposure, media and marketing to get the word out about Seed to Plate.
Solution Team
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GG
George Gebran Seed to Plate
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Solution Name:
Seed to Plate