How robots and indoor farming can help save water and grow crops year round

How robots and indoor farming can help save water and grow crops year round


Agriculture may feed the world, but it is also contributing to global warming. Agriculture production uses about 70% of the Earth’s fresh water and makes up about a third of greenhouse gas emissions. But it doesn’t have to. Farming is moving inside, and farmers aren’t exactly what they used to be. New forms of farming, new technology and new companies are greening the greenery.

Take for example Grover and Phil. They are autonomous robots — or farmers of the future, working at Iron Ox, a 6-year-old, Silicon Valley-based farm tech start-up. It grows produce in natural light greenhouses, with the goal of decentralizing farming in order to grow crops closer to consumers in a more sustainable way.

“We have different robots that are tending to the plants, they’re checking on it, they’re scanning for issues, and they’re adjusting the amount of nutrients it gets, the amount of water it gets,” explained Brandon Alexander, CEO of Iron Ox.

Robot works the hot house at Iron Ox, a Silicon Valley clean agriculture startup.

CNBC

Iron Ox’s method is in direct contrast to what Alexander, who grew up on a Texas farm, calls the “spray and pray” approach to agriculture, where more chemicals create more quantity at the expense of quality. Growing indoors allows farmers to grow any crop at any time, regardless of climate and of climate change. It also uses hydroponics, growing crops without soil so water goes directly to the roots.

“A lot of the water in field farming gets just washed out and never actually reaches the plant. And when 70% of your fresh water is going into that farming, and only 10% of that actually reaches the plants. It’s just generating a lot of waste,” he said.

Iron Ox does not consider itself “vertical farming,” which is another type of technology designed to limit greenhouse gases by growing in smaller spaces. While there is definitely competition in the clean agriculture space, Alexander says he welcomes it.

“In the indoor farming space today, even with all the investments into it, frankly these investments are a drop in the bucket in terms of the potential of the space. Food done right has the ability to reach more people than the top five tech companies combined,” he added.

Iron Ox is now expanding to Texas, just outside Austin. It sells to retailers such as Whole Foods, as well as to local restaurants. Alexander says the company will produce about 100 times more produce over the next 18 months than it’s currently producing.

The company is backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Crosslink Ventures, R7 Partners, Eniac Ventures, Pathbreaker and i/o Ventures and Amplify Ventures. Total funding to date: $98 million.

 

 



Source

Figma CEO’s path from college dropout and Thiel fellow to tech billionaire
Technology

Figma CEO’s path from college dropout and Thiel fellow to tech billionaire

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, signs the guestbook on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York on July 31, 2025. Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg may be the most famous college-dropout-turned-tech-billionaire. Dylan Field is the latest, after his design startup Figma soared in its stock […]

Read More
Ethereum turns 10: From scrappy experiment to Wall Street’s invisible backbone
Technology

Ethereum turns 10: From scrappy experiment to Wall Street’s invisible backbone

CANNES — Ten years ago, Vitalik Buterin and a small band of developers huddled in a drafty Berlin loft strung with dangling lightbulbs, laptops balanced on mismatched chairs and chipped tables. They weren’t corporate titans or venture-backed founders — just idealists working long nights to push a radical idea into reality. From that sparse office, […]

Read More
Crypto wobbles into August as Trump’s new tariffs trigger risk-off sentiment
Technology

Crypto wobbles into August as Trump’s new tariffs trigger risk-off sentiment

A screen showing the price of various cryptocurrencies against the US dollar displayed at a Crypto Panda cryptocurrency store in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025.  Lam Yik | Bloomberg | Getty Images The crypto market slid Friday after President Donald Trump unveiled his modified “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of countries. The price […]

Read More