Houston’s hydroponic farming efforts can help feed America amidst population growth, declining soil health, record droughts, and supply chain issues. Join us at Moonflower Farms to watch how hyperlocal vertical farming at scale is leading food innovation.

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Moonflower Farms founder, Federico Marques, first learned about hydroponics while working with NASA and Bioregenerative Life Support Systems staff at Stennis Space Center and he’s been on a quest ever since. In 2016, he launched the city of Houston's first commercial vertical hydroponic farm and by 2019, they’d moved into a 20,000 square foot greenhouse. When grocery shelves emptied and transportation ground to a halt after the 2021 Texas winter storm, Moonflower Farms managed to keep growing fresh food to feed Houston and beyond. That’s the ultimate food security.

It all comes down to a simple science, as old as the age of Babylon and as far reaching as the moon. With nutrient film technique, or NFT, plants take root in water instead of soil, surrounded by a film of nutrients that the farmer controls for optimal growth. Instead of saturating miles of depleted topsoil with what accounts for 70% of our global potable water, hydroponic farmers are able to give the plants exactly what they need, no more and no less. This means hydroponic farming uses 95% less water than traditional farming, while avoiding soil borne diseases and the need for wide expanses of land.

And since hydroponic farming can be done virtually anywhere, including outer space, that means hyperlocal access to food, something Americans desperately need in a time of supply chain interruptions, skyrocketing fuel prices, and decarbonization. Much of the food we get at the grocery store has traveled days if not weeks, over thousands of miles, to reach us. Considering a head of lettuce loses 10% of its nutrients every day it gets further away from harvest, we're looking at lower nutrition food at best, and at worst, food that ends up in the landfill. In fact, 66% of the fresh produce we import goes to waste.

As Moonflower CEO Federico Marques says, “Our current food systems are vastly inefficient, with food waste, rampant pesticide use, transport emissions, and agricultural runoff. Closed loop grow systems prevent these problems and help to create higher quality food and local jobs.”

Moonflower Farms believes that by 2030, every city will be developing their own hyperlocal sustainable hydroponic farms. They’re taking it to Kroger stores in the greater Houston area, to their climate tech incubator, Greentown Labs, and to schools across Texas. And they want to help us do it. From here to the moon.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
00:00 Houston Texas’ biggest hydroponic farm
00:18 Growing food without soil
00:47 NASA researches growing food in space
01:23 10th grader brings hydroponics to Houston schools
02:55 How hydroponics helps food security
03:53 Greentown Labs helps startups like Moonflower Farms
04:25 Different types of hydroponics
04:55 Hydroponics uses 95% less water than traditional ag
05:25 NFT, nutrient film technique
06:50 Hyperlocal means fresh food for everyone
07:08 AI farming
07:46 Failure is part of innovation
07:59 Sustainable city farming solves food insecurity

Directed by Jessie English
Created by Conor Gaughan and Kate Tucker
Written and hosted by Kate Tucker

Produced by Consensus Digital Media in partnership with Remedial Media

Executive Producer - Kate Tucker
Executive Producer - Jessie English
Executive Producer - Eric Feigenbaum
Executive Producer - Conor Gaughan

Featuring:
Federico Marques - Founder & CEO, Moonflower Farms
Luis Silva - Lead Engineer, Moonflower Farms
Jose Garcia - Operations Manager, Moonflower Farms
Rahul Vijayan - Founder, Farm to Tray

Filmed at Moonflower Farms and Greentown Labs in Houston, Texas

Supervising Producer - Geoff Rock
Editor - Nick Nazmi
Assistant Editor - Dustin Waldman
Director of Photography - Isaac Rosenthal
Camera Operator - Eddie Bernard
Gaffer / Drone Operator - Fletcher Anstis
Sound Engineer - Tom Eichler
Production Coordinator - John Ryan Gage
Production Assistant - Josiah Shaw
Makeup & Hair - Tracy Fettig
Wardrobe - Hollie Van Osenbruggen
Audio Mixer / Sound Design - Dillon Terry
Color Grading - Ind3x
Motion Graphics - Yuriy Netrebyuk
Graphic Design - Stephen Lepsch

Music by Desert Dive, Dario Benedetti, Falls, Shimmer, Joshua Spacht, and Heartland Nights, courtesy of Soundstripe

Special thanks to Greentown Labs Houston, and to NASA Stennis Space Center: [ Ссылка ]

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