To eliminate dirty food, the Germans had a wonderful invention.

Instead of going to the farm to choose clean vegetables for your family, now you can just go to the supermarket and have safe vegetable products right away.

We all know that daily meals cannot lack clean vegetables to provide the necessary amount of vitamins. However, with high energy and fuel costs, transporting fruits and vegetables from the farm to the supermarket and then to the consumer will push the price higher.

To solve the above problem, a German company came up with an idea to help consumers choose clean vegetables at affordable prices: integrating mini farms right in supermarkets.

Kräutergarten, which translates to “herb garden,” is the brainchild of agricultural startup Infarm, which has been testing micro-farms at the Metro group, a German retail chain.

Image of Kräutergarten at a supermarket in Germany.

“Almost any greenhouse needs to be large in scale to be cost-effective and efficient,” Infarm co-founder Guy Galonska told Adele Peters at Fast Company. “In our case, the technology we use is in single blocks, and they are more efficient. They can be used on a small scale, just a few square meters. So it makes sense to use it in a supermarket with a small footprint.”

Like the popular trellis vegetable growing methods in the US and UK, Infarm's system takes advantage of advantages such as year-round production, low water usage, and pesticide-free technology to provide a low-cost and environmentally friendly vegetable growing method.

Vegetables and herbs grow in a cell until they are ready to be sold. Unlike other greenhouse systems, seedlings and mature plants don’t have to be moved around, so the grow boxes make use of every inch of space inside.

At the moment, only one mini-farm is operating in a specialty supermarket, which is exclusively for chefs and wholesale customers. However, the company intends to mass-produce such models for more supermarket chains before the end of the year. Besides being energy-saving and environmentally friendly as it cuts down on transportation costs from the farm to the distribution system, Infarm says the system will change consumer shopping habits.

Customers can choose their own vegetables right at the mini farm.

“We get a lot of interesting feedback from chefs when they see vegetables that they know because they use them every day but don’t know how they grow and develop,” Galonska said. “It really engages people. Going to the market and supermarket can be boring sometimes. You just come and pick out what’s already there. But here, you see a real farm – a farm in a supermarket.”

The pilot models are focusing on raw and specialty greens, including mizuna and wasabi greens. However, Infarm also shares that the boxes can be used to grow produce such as eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. Combined with a mobile app that allows customers to order the vegetables they want, customers can easily choose the products instead of going to their local farm shop and straining their eyes to find the product they want.

“We think of this type of farming as a service,” Galonska shares. “It’s similar to the software world, where we sell technology at a low price and then provide all the details and services that come with it as software.”

Infarm hopes that supermarkets will soon start installing the mini farms. If the idea catches on, it could help change people’s minds about how trellises and other urban farming methods are not an effective way to increase production and reduce the impact of traditional farming.

The method of growing vegetables on trellises is widely applied in large cities where agricultural land is almost non-existent.

“If you look five or 10 years from now, you’ll see a lot of technological advancements in agriculture. We’ll see vertical farming models that can produce a lot of products like rice, beans, and some fruits,” Galonska said. “Will it completely replace traditional agriculture?” Maybe, but it will be a long process for humans to reach that level of farming.

According to Khoahoc.tv