VANCOUVER, BC, /CNW/ – CubicFarm® Systems Corp. (“CubicFarms” or the “Company”) (TSX: CUB), a leading local chain agricultural technology company, today announced that South by Southwest® (“SXSW”) has recognized the Company’s HydroGreen Automated Vertical Pastures™ (“AVPs”), an indoor growing technology for fresh livestock feed, as one of five finalists in the “New Economy” category of the 2022 SXSW Innovation Awards.
Featuring HydroGreen among 65 of the most exciting tech developments in the connected world across 13 categories, the 24th annual SXSW Innovation Awards Ceremony will be held in Austin, Texas, on March 14, 2022.
“This just saved our farm,” said Michael Rigby, owner of Rigby Cattle Co. in Utah, who has two HydroGreen AVPs on his farm. Extreme drought, rising costs, and climate change are impacting farmers all over the world. “The severe drought had us worried we wouldn’t be able to feed our herd. The HydroGreen technology allows us to grow our own on farm fresh livestock feed. Our family has been in the cattle industry for generations, and we were considering getting out of the business entirely if we couldn’t get high quality, nutritious feed for our cattle. Having a consistent, predictable feed supply no matter what the weather is essential for our family farm.”
HydroGreen AVPs are hydroponic vertically stacked growing layers in a controlled environment, effectively bringing grazing lands indoors, harvesting fresh livestock feed daily, 365 days a year. Unlike other vertical farms, the process is fully automated, with seeding, watering, and harvesting in a clean environment with no pesticides, less water, less land, and less labour.
A dozen commercial scale AVPs replace 500 acres of farmland, the equivalent of 378 football fields, and use 95% less water than traditional outdoor growing. With a dozen machines, that saves 500 gallons of water annually, enough to give one glass of water to every person on the planet.
“It’s an honor just to be nominated among these globally recognized projects. What started with one farmer’s idea to combat drought has evolved into a revolutionary agricultural technology that can help farmers all over the world,” said Dan Schmidt, President, HydroGreen. “We’re seeing the need for this more than ever. Weather and climate disasters in 2021 pummeled farms and ranches across the United States, resulting in over $12.5 billion in crop and rangeland losses. We’re so excited to have our team’s hard work and technology featured at SXSW. At CubicFarms and HydroGreen, we’re passionate about helping farmers to succeed and do more with less, locally, and sustainably.”
“The Innovation Awards are such a huge part of what we do at SXSW – the title of this competition reflects one of the pillar tenants of the event. And for this year, the quality of entries we received was absolutely off-the-charts,” said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer. “Each 2022 finalist is pushing the envelope with the new ideas, new technologies, and new processes that they are bringing to the table. I can’t wait until the Innovation Awards Ceremony on March 14 to see which of these finalists emerge as the best of the best of the best!”
“It’s heartbreaking to see the devastation of climate change and long supply chain disruptions that are impacting so many farms and ranches across North America and the world,” said Dave Dinesen, Chief Executive Officer, CubicFarms. “HydroGreen is a technology that helps the communities who need a solution today and gives hope for future generations of farmers. As one of only two Canadian companies recognized this year at SXSW, we’re proud to share our impactful and innovative Automated Vertical Pastures™ technology with an international audience. Congratulations to all the finalists and category winners of this year’s SXSW Innovation Awards!”
About CubicFarms
CubicFarms is a leading local chain agricultural technology company developing and deploying technology to feed a changing world. Its proprietary ag-tech solutions enable growers to produce high quality, predictable produce and fresh livestock feed with HydroGreen Nutrition Technology, a division of CubicFarm Systems Corp. The CubicFarms™ system contains patented technology for growing leafy greens and other crops onsite, indoors, all year round. CubicFarms provides an efficient, localized food supply solution that benefits our people, planet, and economy.
For more information, please visit www.cubicfarms.com.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
“Dave Dinesen”
Dave Dinesen, Chief Executive Officer
This release may contain certain “forward-looking statements” or “forward-looking information” under applicable securities laws. Forward-looking terms such as “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “would,” “plan,” “potential,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “project,” “target,” “believe,” “plan,” “outlook,” “estimate,” or “expect” and other words, terms and phrases of similar nature are often intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct.
SOURCE CubicFarm Systems Corp.
