Racing back and forth, seven 3D printers lined up on a shelf in a Little Rock garage cut out small, curved cups that will play a major role in a rising new Arkansas company. Plastic pipes are stacked up in the garage, while tools sit waiting for use, giving the space the feel of a rough-hewn laboratory, a workstation for experimenting and innovation.
Standing in the middle of the workspace is a vertical tower with green leafy plants sprouting off of it. Not a simple plant hanger, this tower is a full-fledged agricultural system, capable of growing vegetables and more with its unique hydroponics setup.
Amid the seeming chaos of their work area, Gunnar Shaffer and Thomas Burns, the co-founders of Agrowponics, are hard at work perfecting their product, as they endeavor to bring these systems to a bigger market.
Both engineers, Shaffer and Burns are attempting to revolutionize the vertical farming industry with their startup and its unique modular systems. Vertical farming is a system of agriculture that focuses on growing crops vertically, rather than traditional horizontal growing in the ground. Using vertical farming, producers grow their crops in controlled environments using hydroponics, aeroponics or aquaponics systems.
Instead of sticking to the ground, vertical farming moves the growing space upwards. Using a traditional greenhouse setup as an example, Shaffer pointed out that most of the structure’s space is wasted if growers only plant crops on a horizontal axis.
“When you think about a greenhouse, if you just grow on the ground, the X and Y plane, you’re just using the bottom of the greenhouse. It’s basically like growing something in the ground. You have all this volume that you’re heating, that you’re collecting sunlight,” Shaffer said. “It’s a safe environment, so why not use the entire volume of the greenhouse, not just the floor? That’s really where the idea of vertical farming came up.”
According to Ryan Dickson, an assistant professor of horticulture at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, vertical farming is not a new concept but has only recently emerged as a viable agricultural method.
“Vertical farming technology has been around for a couple of decades but has become much more advanced and efficient in recent years, especially with LED lighting systems, allowing vertical farming to be a more economical and commercially viable enterprise,” he said.
Dickson cited high energy and initial capital costs as some of the factors that have held back the vertical farming industry in the past; however, this is changing as technologies improve and consumer demand increases for safe, locally grown, and pesticide-free food. Vertical farming is well-suited for urban areas, where it is traditionally more difficult to farm and supply local fresh food.
“Vertical farming will not replace traditional field farming but can offer opportunity for urban growers producing certain types of high-value or specialty crops such as leafy greens, herbs and transplants,” he said.
While vertical farming has a limited foothold on the agricultural market, it has been slowly growing, pardon the pun, and analysts predict that vertical farming will grow explosively over the next decade.
Going back to 2018, Allied Market Research estimated that the global vertical farming market was worth $2.23 billion and will be worth $12.77 billion by 2026 with a compound annual growth rate of 24.6 percent. Global Market Insights estimates that the vertical farming market was valued at $4.41 billion in 2020 and expects the market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.2 percent from 2021 to 2027. By 2027, the firm estimates that the vertical farm market will have a value of more than $19 billion.
Right now, Shaffer and Burns are keeping their eyes on the product rather than the rising market value. But there is no denying the possibilities for the company.
For Agrowponics, it all started in 2013 when Shaffer, then a student at John Brown University, had the chance to work on a research project for a solar battery-powered, off-grid farming system. As part of the system, Shaffer developed the vertical farming towers. “In 2013 when I started, there were almost no options, right? It wasn’t like I could go find resources. So, I had to come up with my own idea. I just said ‘OK, I’ve got a problem. I can figure out a way to solve it,’” Shaffer said.
He put several “making-of” videos for the towers on YouTube, attracting 1 million hits to date. The attention, and the requests for where to buy the towers, spurred Shaffer to think that the idea had commercial possibilities. But life intervened for several years, as Shaffer headed to Germany for a master’s degree in engineering.
While he was preoccupied with his studies, the idea for a vertical-farming manufacturing company kept percolating in his head. In 2017, he launched Agrowponics. He began the company with other business partners initially, but Burns was the one who sparked with Shaffer the best.
Their business relationship was a serendipitous case of meeting over the water cooler at work. Both employees at Southwest Power Pool, Shaffer and Burns began working in nearby spots, where they struck up conversations about Shaffer’s nascent venture.
“I was working there, and Gunnar shows up. He’s over there next to me, and I say, ‘Let’s go out for a beer!’ Well, he doesn’t drink. I said, ‘Let’s go out for a cheeseburger.’ Well, he’s busy because he does a lot of volunteer work. Finally, I overheard him talking one day about having problems with his product. I can help him — I’ve got this. He came over, and within a week, we had a proof of product,” Burns said.
A seventh-generation farmer, Shaffer brings a solid agricultural background along with his engineering background with him as he serves as the company’s chief executive. Burns has a background in computer and electrical engineering, as well as management — all critical for his role as president of Agrowponics.
Since partnering up, Shaffer and Burns have been steadily working on Agrowponics’ offerings, both refining what they have and growing their capabilities. Now, they offer a single tower-bucket system, a dual tower-bucket system, a rack system and a greenhouse system.
These “Agrowtowers,” made using custom-made, food-grade plastic pipes, have growing spaces cut into them at customizable angles, whether that is at 120 degrees or opposite each other at 180 degrees, that curved cups can fit into and in which the plants will sit. According to Burns, these towers can be custom built to exacting specifications, with most towers being 5 to 10 feet in length, and most of the tower diameters being 2 to 4 inches.
Burns said the tower systems are ideal for families, with the single tower better for small families and the dual towers for medium- to large-size families, who want to grow fresh food. These systems, he said, can fit easily on a back porch or inside a sunroom.
The single tower has a total of 21 growing spaces, while the double tower has 42 growing spaces. Shaffer and Burns have developed curved cups that are machined to fit the curvature of the pipe, and the plants sit inside the cups in a growing medium. Both systems come with a large water reservoir, which provides the nutrients, and a pump to circulate the water.
Because these are hydroponics systems, no soil is used in Agrowponics’ systems. Instead, inside the cups, there is a growing medium that helps start the plants off. “The medium is just there to hold the roots so it can get started. After a while, the roots are going to grow and secure themselves. Initially, you’re going to have just small roots, and you need that foundation,” Burns said.
Gunnar Shaffer and Thomas Burns.
Agrowponics systems can use either hydroponics or aquaponics, which involves using fish. Having a hydroponics/aquaponics system makes sense for Shaffer, who said that these water-based systems allow the plants to endure more and also cuts down on root rot. “Most plants, they die because they get too much water in the ground, and it pushes out the oxygen, and the bad bacteria eats the roots and rots them,” Shaffer said.
At the more advanced end, Agrowponics offers a rack system, which is a modular system that can support up to 15 towers with 24 growing spaces per tower. Custom greenhouse systems allow owners to retrofit their structures until they reach their yield goal. The greenhouse systems are custom designs for greenhouses, which allow owners to retrofit their structures for Agrowponics’ systems.
With both the rack and greenhouse systems, the company can add LED lighting packages and a monitoring package, increasing the range of control that growers have in cultivating their crops.
Not content with developing the vertical farming hardware, Agrowponics has developed software, building its own monitoring package with the help of Maximilian Holzmueller. The monitoring system measures temperature, humidity, pH and nutrients in the system, as well as uses cameras to detect pests or disease. The software has an interface that allows users to compile the system’s data into graphs and charts and even receive phone alerts if there are issues with the plants or system.
The Agrowponics partners are working to ramp up production for their systems. The COVID-19 pandemic presented a temporary hiccup for them, as they had used the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub for all their manufacturing needs. With the Hub closed due to COVID precautions, the pair went in and purchased seven 3D printers and a CNC machine for rapid prototyping. They are taking the next step, though, and moving toward injection molding for some parts to speed up their processes.
His mind like a Tilt-A-Whirl, Burns outlines an ambitious plan for keeping the company’s production cycle constantly moving and improving. “Once we ramp up production, we can cut 10, 12 pipes at a time, rotate it and cut 120-degrees, 180-degrees. We are working on a rotational axis that will automatically rotate it and cut it,” he said.
The workshop provides all the evidence needed to show that Burns and Shaffer are not ones to sit on their laurels, with a mini-graveyard of old prototypes and models that they have tinkered with, discarded or continue to cobble from and learn from. As they both said, it’s the benefit of having two engineers directing the ship.
“Lots of time, I’m here spending the evening, and I’ve got an idea and within an hour, I can have something printed,” Burns said.
Shaffer added, “We don’t need engineers to figure it out. We’ve already done it before you’ve thought about it on paper. And fail? We’ve failed more times than people may have even tried. That’s our main success is that we’ve failed more times. But we have learned and learned and learned. We can tackle all kinds of problems. Give me a problem. I’ll figure out a way to solve it.”
Since its beginning, Agrowponics has been a constantly evolving company, with the engineers working to determine the best ideas for their company. While they show the restless energy of inveterate tinkerers, Burns and Shaffer said that they are ready to take their products to the next market level.
Already, the company has sold products to customers in more than 40 states and in 10 countries. But their first big product test will be at a local nursery, where they will install their Agrowponics systems in greenhouses. From there, it’s only up for Burns and Shaffer.
Along with the vertical farming industry, Agrowponics is growing strong.
