SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. —
A new indoor farming facility has opened in the Louisville area, and it's partnering with one of America's largest food distributors.
Square Roots, an agritech company co-founded by Elon Musk's brother, Kimbal Musk, has partnered with Gordon Food Service on the new indoor farm in Shepherdsville.
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This new location marks the two's third one since becoming partners in 2019. The goal for each location is supplying locally-grown food at a global scale.
What this means for locations with these indoor farms is that food supplies are more plentiful and being delivered from closer proximity.
At the new Shepherdsville facility, the technologies used by Square Roots will increase yields by 30%, according to the company. It uses a slew of automated features powered by Square Roots' own software that handles all aspects of the farming.
“Working with Gordon Food Service, we’ve tripled our aggregate growing capacity this year while entering three new strategic markets across America’s heartland,” said Tobias Peggs, co-founder and CEO of Square Roots in a news release. “This rapid expansion is purely driven by customer demand for our locally-grown food. And it’s been enabled by our scalable smart-farm platform — which we’ve shown can be replicated in multiple new locations, quickly and cost-effectively.”
One unique feature of the Square Roots' farms is they use less water and require less land compared to standard field farms. This is thanks to a recirculating hydroponic system.
Matthew Keck WLYK
