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Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by TheIronYuppie on Monday June 26, 2017 @04:53PM (#14640269)
But what if the store could produce its own plants at 1/10th the cost of purchasing them elsewhere (just light and water)? It's not like they don't already have floor space taken up with plants today - they just buy them from elsewhere.
Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by aetherson on Monday June 26, 2017 @04:56PM (#14640290)
They "only" cost "light and water" elsewhere, too (actually, obviously, far more than just light and water).

Do you think that 90% of the wholesale cost of produce is transportation costs? If so, why do you think that?

Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by peterjlee on Monday June 26, 2017 @05:01PM (#14640326)
The plants taking up space in the grocery store have a pretty fast turnaround time while these basils will take few weeks to grow. Though I guess they could have these "farms" in some cheap warehouse then move it to the grocery store only when they're ready. Ok, this seems a bit more viable now.
Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by apendleton on Monday June 26, 2017 @06:00PM (#14640745)
These are hydroponic systems, so it'll be distilled water, power for high-intensity grow lights (where stuff grown outdoors, at least in-season, gets this from the sun), nutrient solution (in an outdoor context, some of this would be "free"-ish, from soil, and some would be from fertilizer), plus lifetime-amortized costs of the grow setup: pumps, filters, etc. And all of that besides the water you'd have to ship anyway from wherever it's manufactured. Granted, if we're talking lettuce, it's like 95% water by weight anyway, and a decent percentage of what's left is carbon that's fixed from the air, so there's probably a shipping savings, but I still don't think this whole setup would be particularly cheap.