Siemens and 80 Acres Farms partner in vertical farming to meet global food supply demands

GERMANY – Siemens, a technology company, has partnered with an indoor vertical farming company, 80 Acres Farms, and its technology subsidiary, Infinite Acres, in expansion to meet global food supply demands.

With five production farms in southwestern Ohio, a new farm in Florence, Kentucky, a future farm in Covington, Georgia, and R&D facilities in Arkansas and the Netherlands, 80 Acres Farms specializes in growing the next generation of food — grown in eco-friendly indoor farms closer to consumers’ tables.

The partnership intends to apply innovative technology within the agriculture industry by “fostering sustainable, healthy, traceable, and more productive farming practices”.

Utilizing Siemens’ robust set of software and hardware solutions, spanning intelligent facility and energy management systems to advanced industrial automation technology, 80 Acres Farms is well positioned to meet its goal to optimize and standardize its operations — with the vision to support food security worldwide, said Siemens USA President and CEO Barbara Humpton.

He added: “We sometimes hear that food is medicine. Vertical farming is an opportunity to turn this concept into a reality, and 80 Acres Farms’ use of technology is now modeling the path forward for this transformative approach to food production.”

“In this moment of change and disruption–and in a world becoming increasingly ‘glocal’–what I see at 80 Acres Farms represents both the purpose and the power of the industrial technologies now readily available to us: the capability to invent anywhere, then to scale our world-changing solutions everywhere.”

Siemens’ full-scale collaboration involves the optimization, automation, and control of 80 Acres facilities and processes.

Working with the company’s technology subsidiary, Siemens will support the industrialization and scaling of its Loop platform–a solutions program for crop management software and algorithms, environmental controls, robotics, and automation.

Tisha Livingston, a co-founder of 80 Acres Farms and CEO of Infinite Acres, elaborated that Infinite Acres has built the Loop platform through collaboration with best-in-class technology partners such as Priva, Ocado, and Signify.

The new partnership with Siemens, according to Livingston, takes the collaboration and technology platform to a new level through the 360° approach across software and connected hardware solutions — from digital twins to advanced controls.

The parties said Siemens Smart Infrastructure is to provide power distribution equipment while its energy and building management technologies within the facilities help monitor fire and life safety, security, and power distribution systems all from a single interface.

Meanwhile, Siemens Digital Industries will install a suite of advanced industrial automation technologies and edge devices to help automate the production line, while edge devices and human-machine interfaces monitor and update the farms’ control systems.

Siemens also noted that its Digital Industries Software is currently developing a digital twin that simulates the farm, plant growth, and production process to predict plant growth under diverse conditions as well as to optimize future farms for growth and shipping.

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