Revolutionizing Agriculture: Richmond-based company creating accessible indoor micro-farming solutions
The Speakers:
Alexander Olesen is the CEO of Babylon Micro-Farms Inc. He co-founded Babylon Micro-Farms in 2017 while he and Graham Smith were students at the University of Virginia. Olesen was studying social-entrepreneurship.
They started Babylon with the idea of growing food where it was never thought possible to provide nutritious produce for food-insecure refugees.
In 2022, the co-founders were named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in the category of Social Impact.
Olesen is an award winning entrepreneur, keynote, and TEDx speaker on vertical farming and climate technology.
On Wednesday April 3 at noon:
Learn how a Richmond-based company is revolutionizing agriculture by creating accessible indoor micro-farming solutions for growing salad greens, herbs, and vegetables.
Babylon Micro-Farms is enabling businesses and communities to grow their own produce on-site through its automatic indoor hydroponic farming system.
The company’s customers include hospitals, senior living centers, universities, schools, institutional foodservice clients like Aramark, and even a cruise ship.
The climate-controlled clear glass vertical farming case can grow 45-plus kinds of greens, herbs, vegetables, and flowers such as basil, kale, lettuce, and bok choy.
The greens grow in trays and rely on water without using pesticides.
Each modular can grow the greens and herbs two to three times faster using 90% less water when compared to outdoor farming.
Each 15-square-foot case is the equivalent of a 2,000 square-foot area of outdoor farmland.
The company can monitor and control the growing process remotely through BabylonIQ software platform, adjusting levels of nutrients, water, temperature and chemistry.
The service includes the semi-automated vertical units, software, and supplies wrapped into a flat monthly fee.
The company was started in Charlottesville in 2017, but moved to Richmond in 2021.