Faribault-Based Business Ready To Grow

Faribault-based Living Greens has 12 million new reasons to be ready for market. That's a good thing as Neal St. Anthony in the Star Tribune said the company is exiting the research and development stage of its aeroponic lettuce and greens operation and is getting ready to head to market. 

The low-input, no-dirt operation is hoping to have a big effect on the emerging world of year-round indoor vegetable growing. Living Greens started out slowly by testing and producing bigger and bigger crops of lettuce using a high-tech fast-growing system that uses nutrient-rich misting and LED lights.

By early 2019 the Faribault-based company hopes to have completed the last stage of construction which would give them around 60,000 square feet of stacked, automated growing spaces capable of producing up to 3 million heads of lettuce! Once the construction is complete next year the Faribault farm will be the second-largest aeroponics operation behind that of industry leader AeroFarms of Newark, N.J. That is pretty impressive! So impressive that Living Greens recently received $12 million dollars in funding.

What's really awesome about this local company is the sheer amount of lettuce that is produced from the facility. The company plans to produce as much lettuce indoors as would be produced by 100 times the farmland, using 95 percent less water, no pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals. WOW!

Some great news if you are someone who loves a salad, the article went on to say that "Living Greens plans to deliver a premium product locally, at lower costs" since they don't have to ship the lettuce a long distance.

Living Greens isn't the only indoor aeroponic based grower in the area, in Medford Revol Greens is doing well too, and their products are also found in area grocery stores.