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Media
A Year of milestones
It has been an exciting year for First Light Project and we are truly thankful. With the generous support of individuals and organizations we have built a small pilot farm in Philadelphia and the response from the community is overwhelmingly positive! This idea took a long time to germinate but the results speak for themselves. Early this year First Light Project Farm was selected as a finalist for the Full City Challenge. Many of you donated to our Go Fund Me campaign and in two weeks we raised nearly $10,000 towards building the pilot farm. Generous donations from a family...
growing progress
Here are additional pictures of what we’ve grown in our vertical farms!
Vertical farm progress
We are continuing to make progress with our vertical farms. Here are some of the plants we’ve grown.
New photos of vertical farms
Here are new photos of our vertical farming project! We have grown various vegetables in our growing racks.
FIRST LIGHT PROJECT FARM UPDATE FROM PHILABUNDANCE’S NORTH PHILLY WAREHOUSE
On Friday, 11/01/19 we planted our first trays of seeds in growing media. Within 2 days our first plants germinated.
This is What Hydroponics Sounds Like
First Light Project’s Pilot Vertical Farm is in the commissioning phase where water is continually circulating as we adjust the pumps and balance water flow. One submersible pump circulates water from our 65 gallon dosing tank up to the top of each unit. Water cascades down the interior leg of the unit and zig-zags down through 5 growing levels. Water from each unit is collected through a drain in a lower leg and flows to a central collection reservoir below unit 1. From there another pump circulates the water back into the dosing tank where our Autogrow controller automatically adjusts...
Tackling the Wicked Problems Philadelphia Faces
For those of you who are following our journey, it’s been a whirlwind week for First Light Project. Tuesday night culminated a week of preparation for competition between five finalists for the Inaugural Full City Challenge sponsored by The Economy League of Greater Philadelphia and Billy Penn. Unfortunately, our project was not chosen for the prize, but we walked away with an experience that is much more valuable to us. The intensive idea accelerator workshop, the connections and introductions, the feedback from advisers, and all our new friends was a prize in and of itself. Congratulations to the winners; Hospitality Together, to my personal favorite; The Rebel...
Why Vertical Farms Are Able to Avoid the Current Romaine Debacle
Are we witnessing the fall of the Romaine Empire? Probably not, but most Americans are heeding CDC warnings and staying away from romaine lettuce. Lettuce growers are taking a hit all across North America because some industrial-scale Ag growers screwed up again. The unfortunate part of this debacle is that not all lettuce is affected by the CDC recall, but how is the public to know? I previously wrote that this latest outbreak argues a case for vertical farms. It’s true, hydroponic growing technology eliminates many of the potential health hazards that we face when we eat industrial lettuce. Plus, hydroponic vertical farms...
A Case for Vertical Farms
Two days before the biggest food holiday of the year the CDC warned North Americans not to eat romaine lettuce. So what did I do yesterday? I threw away three heads of lettuce and headed out into grocery store madness to find a suitable salad substitute. Think of all the Foxy, Dole, and Andy Boy hearts of romaine that went into the trash. Think of all the Fresh Express and Earthbound Farms bags of mixed lettuce that got chucked. I went to the grocery store and employees were frantically pulling any product with compromised content from the shelves. This is happening all too...