No matter arctic chill or snow outside, the parent company of Cub Foods soon will produce fresh herbs and spring mix all year long.
United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) will partner with New York-based Square Roots to open an indoor farm next summer at its Prescott, Wis., distribution center. The produce is intended to serve retail customers in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
"Even in the middle of winter, when it's brutally cold outside in the Twin Cities and all the lakes are frozen, inside the farm it's gonna feel like Genoa in the northwest of Italy in June pretty much all year around," said Tobias Peggs, Square Roots chief executive and co-founder.
Indoor agriculture is a burgeoning industry driven by environmental, health and economic concerns. Cub Foods and other local grocers already sell produce from other indoor farms, such as tomatoes from Owatonna's Bushel Boy Farms. Bushel Boy is expanding into strawberries, small cucumbers and other produce.
Soon after the Prescott indoor farm opens, innovative salad blends as well as fresh basil, dill and other herbs will be on the way to United Natural Foods' customers, including Cub and Whole Foods. Crops are to be harvested and packed inside the Square Roots facility, ready for distribution to customers the same day of harvest.
As part of its Better For All initiative, UNFI is focused on building closer relationships with its produce suppliers to build an efficient and expansive supply-chain network designed to shorten the time it takes to deliver produce to retail customers.
Heat waves and storms continue to pose a threat to the supply of fresh produce but the promise of the proposed Square Roots farms at UNFI distribution centers is to boost supply chain resilience and to reduce miles driven transporting food, giving back days of freshness to its customers.
Square Roots can deploy its modular farms in any location to create optimal conditions to consistently grow fresh produce. The indoor farms have an ultra-efficient hydroponic system, using significantly less water and land than conventional fields.
Inside its farms, Square Roots' farmers use software it to manage every aspect of growing, from production tasks to monitoring plant health for produce that is pesticide-free and Non-GMO Project verified.
The latest partnership between UNFI and Square Roots helps the wholesaler live up to the promise of "natural" in its name.
"In the produce business you frequently talk about how many days is the supply chain and with the Square Roots partnership, what's exciting is we are talking about how many hours," said Dorn Wenninger, UNFI senior vice president of produce. "That's really impressive and fun and delivers on on one of the highest expectations of the consumer, which is freshness."
