Shipping containers, Elon Musk’s slightly younger brother, Kimbal Musk, and Gordon Foods.

[walker]

Back bordering 60th Street on the Gordon Foods property well behind their headquarters building, there’s now ten or so shipping containers attached to a new barn like building.  This is a hydroponic “urban farm” run by Square Roots, an urban farming company co-founded by Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk’s slightly younger brother.  While Kimbal sits on the boards of both SpaceX and Tesla, his real passion is food and the environment.  Their first farm is based in a parking lot in Brooklyn and provides fresh produce to restaurants and offices in New York City.  Each container is used to grow an amazing quantity of a different crop.

The new farm out at 60th Street is a partnership between Gordon Foods and Square Roots to grow fresh produce year-round that can be delivered quickly to Gordon’s customers and their retail stores.  This is the prototype with the idea being that if it works, they will eventually have shipping container farms at or close by all of their distribution centers around the country.    

SQUARE ROOTS in Brooklyn

The GORDON FOODS partnership
 

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by walker

[Pattmost20]

1. This may win the award for best thread title ever.

2. This is an awesome project that I think will be great for reducing the cost of providing fresh produce. If the system is as cost effective as they say it is, it could effectively erase the cost of transporting food to a distribution facility.

[joeDowntown]

It seems like a cool project and it's interesting to see GFS jump in. From what I've read though, it doesn't really work (from a cost standpoint) for a lot of crops. It is fascinating that they can try to mimic the climate, soil, and even the amount of light of a certain region, potentially allowing them to grow very specific, regional varieties anywhere. 

There is a "farm tour" on the 29th of October if anyone is interested in learning more:

https://squarerootsgrow.com/#events

Joe

[Raildude's dad]

6 hours ago, Pattmost20 said:

1. This may win the award for best thread title ever.

2. This is an awesome project that I think will be great for reducing the cost of providing fresh produce. If the system is as cost effective as they say it is, it could effectively erase the cost of transporting food to a distribution facility.

I must be a cynical old man. I seriously doubt they are doing this to reduce prices. This the stuff the millennials and yuppies buy and are willing to pay premium prices for.

[Pattmost20]

34 minutes ago, Raildude's dad said:

I must be a cynical old man. I seriously doubt they are doing this to reduce prices. This the stuff the millennials and yuppies buy and are willing to pay premium prices for.

At the very least maybe offer a better product at the same price. I'd rather buy herbs and lettuce from a shipping container down the road than trucked in from California or Mexico. 

[Raildude's dad]

It's about 35-36 hours from Imperial Valley to GR. Many a truck took and still do take a load of Steelcase, Herman Miller, Knoll office furniture to CA and come back with a load of fruits and vegetables.  They don't need reefers to haul office furniture.  They use team drivers, 1 is driving while the  other sleep in the sleeper.

[walker]

Nice update article on the Gordon Foods - Square Roots farm today.  Surprisingly long for a TV news story combination of videos and written narrative:

WOODTV: square-roots-gfs-turn-shipping-containers-into-food-oasis

Edited February 21, 2020 by walker

[Chisox]

Removed comment

Edited February 21, 2020 by Chisox
Removed my comments, nothing to add.

[walker]

Considering most of Gordon Foods customers are businesses hard hit by the pandemic such as restaurants and institutions  like schools and hospitals, I was wondering if they might have shut this down.  But this article from WOODTV says it's the opposite and that they have greatly expanded:

WOODTV: pandemic-cooking-trend-fuels-square-roots-expansion-in-w-mi

Looks like the key to this is that Gordon is distributing the Square Roots products to other retailers and not just their traditional customers and  company stores:  

Square Roots says its products have also expanded beyond the store shelves of its partner, GFS, and are now sold in more than 200 retail locations, including Fresh Thyme Market, Horrocks, D&W Fresh Market, Whole Foods Market and FreshDirect.

Edited April 14, 2021 by walker
fix typo

[cstonesparty]

1 hour ago, walker said:

Considering most of Gordon Foods customers are businesses hard hit by the pandemic such as restaurants and institutions  like schools and hospitals, I was wondering if they might have shut this down.  But this article from WOODTV says it's the opposite and that they have greatly expanded:

WOODTV: pandemic-cooking-trend-fuels-square-roots-expansion-in-w-mi

Looks like the key to this is that Gordon is distributing the Square Roots products to other retailers and not just their traditional customers and  company stores:  

Square Roots says its products have also expanded beyond the store shelves of its partner, GFS, and are now sold in more than 200 retail locations, including Fresh Thyme Market, Horrocks, D&W Fresh Market, Whole Foods Market and FreshDirect.

Folks I know at GFS say at one point there business down so much it was really scary.  Adding a distribution channel to their business to diversify within their field seems a huge win.

[walker]

 the Musk family hasn't been doing too well of late.  Twitter was a big mistake for Elon and Tesla's stock price has been falling.  And it looks like Kimbal Musk's Square Roots shipping container farms have all shut down except one of the two behind Gordon Foods:

BUSINESS INSIDER: Kimbal Musk startup square roots-layoffs farm closures

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by walker

[Pattmost20]

12 hours ago, walker said:

 the Musk family hasn't been doing too well of late.  Twitter was a big mistake for Elon and Tesla's stock price has been falling.  And it looks like Kimbal Musk's Square Roots shipping container farms have all shut down except one of the two behind Gordon Foods:

BUSINESS INSIDER: Kimbal Musk startup square roots-layoffs farm closures

 

Another shipping container farm has opened on Oakdale and College called Superbloom farms.  Their basil is fantastic, haven't tried their other lettuces and herbs yet. They have it at Bridge street Market, on the day I bought it, the basil had been picked that morning.

[joeDowntown]

4 hours ago, Pattmost20 said:

Another shipping container farm has opened on Oakdale and College called Superbloom farms.  Their basil is fantastic, haven't tried their other lettuces and herbs yet. They have it at Bridge street Market, on the day I bought it, the basil had been picked that morning.

This style of farming fascinates me, so I'm disappointed Square Roots is failing. Hopefully, GFS can continue to use them or swap to another provider like Superblooms. Almost makes me want to contact Kimball Musk (LOL) and offer pennies on the dollar for the containers not being used.

Joe