4 ms·

Yields increased by 10x for costs increased by 10x sounds cheaper to me.

by twox2 4y ago

dtech 4y ago
I assume the 10x cost increase was per-yield, 100x the yield for 1000x the price.
- forrestthewoods 4y ago
  Ahh that makes sense. The original language was pretty confusing. Increase yields 100x per sqft Increase costs 10x per lb
jonny_eh 4y ago
People can only eat so much food, and it can only be sold for so little.
georgeecollins 4y ago
Yield per acre 100x, yield per $, 1/10x
shagie 4y ago
https://agfundernews.com/the-economics-of-local-vertical-and-greenhouse-farming-are-getting-competitive https://agfundernews.com/the-economics-of-local-vertical-and... For greens, an conventional farm is $0.65/lb and a greenhouse is $2.33/lb. > Assuming a 40-45% gross margin for a typical supermarket produce department, retail prices for greens would need to be approximately $1 a pound for conventional, $4 a pound for greenhouse, $5 a pound for vertical, and $12 a pound for container-grown. A typical head of bibb or butter lettuce weighs less than half a pound. Therefore, the lettuce can be grown in a greenhouse or vertical farm and sold at retail for $2 to $3 per head. > Although greenhouse or vertical farming is three to five times more expensive than growing on a conventional outdoor farm, it still allows for competitive pricing to the consumer with other vegetables and sides. The yield can go up, but the cost per unit goes up too.
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
  What are the biggest factors that contribute to the cost? Is it mostly increased labor?
  - cogman10 4y ago
    Labor and machinery. You can't run a harvesting tractor through a greenhouse. So, a lot of produce from greenhouses or vertical farms (etc) ends up with a manual harvesting step. This is why you pretty much see greenhouses exclusively used for foods which would require that manual step anyways.
    - cupofpython 4y ago
      we have AI based dancing robots now, maybe they can figure something out for this
      - cogman10 4y ago
        I think it's possible the whole system could be automated. The problem really ends up being one of cost. It's similar to the "burger flipper robot" problem. Possibility solvable, but also gonna be costly and buggy for v1 of the robot.
      - shagie 4y ago
        Its an area of active development and research - https://youtu.be/5chk9Sory88 https://youtu.be/5chk9Sory88 Note that this is an area that is rather specialized - a pepper picking robot isn't good for tomato picking or lettuce picking ( https://youtu.be/EFC3OvkVKaQ https://youtu.be/EFC3OvkVKaQ ). Compare that to the incredibly versatile human ( https://youtu.be/oxbJVqfIK1U https://youtu.be/oxbJVqfIK1U ).
    - DarylZero 4y ago
      >You can't run a harvesting tractor through a greenhouse. Sure you can. Just needs to be big enough.

Yields increased by 10x for costs increased by 10x sounds cheaper to me.

by twox2 4y ago

Yields increased by 10x for costs increased by 10x sounds cheaper to me.

dtech 4y ago

I assume the 10x cost increase was per-yield, 100x the yield for 1000x the price.

forrestthewoods 4y ago
Ahh that makes sense. The original language was pretty confusing. Increase yields 100x per sqft Increase costs 10x per lb

jonny_eh 4y ago

People can only eat so much food, and it can only be sold for so little.

georgeecollins 4y ago

Yield per acre 100x, yield per $, 1/10x

shagie 4y ago

https://agfundernews.com/the-economics-of-local-vertical-and-greenhouse-farming-are-getting-competitive https://agfundernews.com/the-economics-of-local-vertical-and... For greens, an conventional farm is $0.65/lb and a greenhouse is $2.33/lb. > Assuming a 40-45% gross margin for a typical supermarket produce department, retail prices for greens would need to be approximately $1 a pound for conventional, $4 a pound for greenhouse, $5 a pound for vertical, and $12 a pound for container-grown. A typical head of bibb or butter lettuce weighs less than half a pound. Therefore, the lettuce can be grown in a greenhouse or vertical farm and sold at retail for $2 to $3 per head. > Although greenhouse or vertical farming is three to five times more expensive than growing on a conventional outdoor farm, it still allows for competitive pricing to the consumer with other vegetables and sides. The yield can go up, but the cost per unit goes up too.

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
What are the biggest factors that contribute to the cost? Is it mostly increased labor?
- cogman10 4y ago
  Labor and machinery. You can't run a harvesting tractor through a greenhouse. So, a lot of produce from greenhouses or vertical farms (etc) ends up with a manual harvesting step. This is why you pretty much see greenhouses exclusively used for foods which would require that manual step anyways.
  - cupofpython 4y ago
    we have AI based dancing robots now, maybe they can figure something out for this
    - cogman10 4y ago
      I think it's possible the whole system could be automated. The problem really ends up being one of cost. It's similar to the "burger flipper robot" problem. Possibility solvable, but also gonna be costly and buggy for v1 of the robot.
    - shagie 4y ago
      Its an area of active development and research - https://youtu.be/5chk9Sory88 https://youtu.be/5chk9Sory88 Note that this is an area that is rather specialized - a pepper picking robot isn't good for tomato picking or lettuce picking ( https://youtu.be/EFC3OvkVKaQ https://youtu.be/EFC3OvkVKaQ ). Compare that to the incredibly versatile human ( https://youtu.be/oxbJVqfIK1U https://youtu.be/oxbJVqfIK1U ).
  - DarylZero 4y ago
    >You can't run a harvesting tractor through a greenhouse. Sure you can. Just needs to be big enough.