May 18, 2021
Image sourced from Fusion Farms
Editor’s note: The following information is derived from an interview Agritecture conducted with Michael Scadden, Stakeholder Relations Director at Fusion Farms.
From An Ordinary Couple To Business Owners In Puerto Rico
The husband and wife team, Kendell Lang and Lisa Jander, started as an ordinary couple visiting Puerto Rico. They were awestruck by the island’s natural resources and beauty. But, after realizing that the residents of this fertile mountainous landscape imported close to 80% of their fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs, they had to do something about it.
Michael Scadden, Stakeholder Relations Director at Fusion Farms, shares that “the founders grew up being very connected to their food sources. Part of the motivation comes from the fact that urbanization is disconnecting most of the population from their food sources and there are lots of people who don’t know where their food comes from, let alone what the nutrient value is.” Given that the United Nations projects 68% of the world’s population to live in urban areas by 2050, Michael questions how residents are going to gain access to produce that hasn’t travelled 1,500 miles and lost all of its nutritional value. He shares how “90% of the nutritional value of the Vitamin C in spinach is gone within 24 hours from harvest,” and as a result, “the solution requires hyper-local food production which needs to be done in efficient and effective ways to solve the problem.”
In 2017, “Kendell and Lisa were in the process of buying a large tropical fruit farm in Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria hit.” The damage was horrific; “more than 80% of all farms in Puerto Rico were destroyed. Since then, only 34% of farms have been restored or rebuilt. It was then that the couple began to accelerate their vision of an indoor farming concept that could withstand the impacts of weather and natural disasters, while also being replicable across the island and anywhere else in the world.”
Image sourced from Fusion Farms
With this vision in mind, they founded Fusion Farms. Kendell Lang and Lisa Jander, Co-founders of Fusion Farms, say that “we didn’t move to Puerto Rico to take advantage of the island; we moved to Puerto Rico to help give the island an advantage.” Today, the team grows a year-round, reliable, and prolific harvest of fresh leafy greens, herbs, vegetables, fruits, and fish, through building and managing modern, sustainable, and hurricane-protected indoor aquaponic farms in Puerto Rico.
Transforming Unused Spaces Into Vertical Aquaponic Farms
Michael shares that “since 2018, they [the founders] have built their business plan, secured funding for their Series A, and selected and developed their pilot facility in Mayagüez, western Puerto Rico. They have been able to build out a fully operational, proof-of-concept, first-of-its-kind vertical aquaponics farm.” This vertical aquaponics farm “seeks to transform the unused or abandoned buildings that are scattered across the island into hurricane-protected, vertical aquaponic farms.”
The aquaponics system allows for a closed-loop and self-sustaining ecosystem requiring no commercial chemical inputs, and ultimately cutting production costs. Michael builds on this by sharing that the team “can easily produce much of the feed the fish need from plant-based high protein pellets, made primarily from our own outdoor grown moringa trees, sunflower seeds, and other locally-sourced ingredients. The fish provide the nutrients to the plants, the plants act as filters for the fish’s environment, and the fish themselves will become another source of revenue as the operation is scaled up.”
It’s clear that the closed-loop nature of this system was critical to the founders’ decision of using aquaponic systems. Michael adds that aquaponics provides operating efficiencies, and allows the production of “both a leafy green crop, as well as a fish protein source.”
Image sourced from Fusion Farms
Since making their first sale in November 2019, Fusion Farms now produces 22 varieties of microgreens, as well as a wide variety of lettuces, basils, mints, and vegetables like peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and strawberries. Their customer-base is far-reaching. It includes residents, restaurants, and “local grocery chains looking for healthier, local, and consistent options for produce that they normally have to import at a higher cost or have a hard time sourcing locally throughout the year.”
Centralizing Sustainability In Their Vision
Michael shares that “sustainable agriculture, protected from environmental risks, that helps solve food security and food sovereignty is at the core of the Fusion Farms vision. This is a model that maximizes economic potential and contribution, reduces the carbon footprint of farming, embraces the zero waste initiative, encourages recycling and the reuse of plastics, and can be driven by renewable clean energy.”
The team puts great emphasis on education and accessibility. They strive to not only educate about “new AgTech methods of CEA farming, but also about nutritional value and the importance of farm-to-fork,” because “maximum nutritional value is achieved when you eat fresh produce as soon as possible after harvest.” As for accessibility, Michael adds that “reducing the initial upfront costs of a Controlled Environment ‘Aquaponics’ model is important in order to make it accessible to anyone who wants to build, operate, or own a Fusion Farm.” So far, with their unique design, the team has been able to cut down upfront costs from US$10 million to US$3 million.
Additionally, Fusion Farms not only works to guide Puerto Rico towards a food sovereign future, but also, the rest of the world. Michael adds that “whether it is the annual hurricane season in the Caribbean or the annual monsoons in India, all locations around the world have some type of environmental challenge (earthquakes, volcanoes, extreme hot, extreme cold, humidity, pests, etc.) where the power of Mother Nature can be devastating to food production. Fusion Farms demonstrates that you can remove the majority of these farming risks, and replicate the fundamental parts of what you see in natural ecosystems.”
Supporting The Puerto Rican Population
Kendell Lang and Lisa Jander, Co-founders of Fusion Farms, say that “we don’t measure our day by the harvest we reap…but by the seeds of hope that we plant.”
In line with this perspective, Fusion Farms has been working on developing several community initiatives and partnerships to foster awareness, education, and investment locally. Michael shares some of these initiatives: “an education partnership with the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez where we have trained dozens of interns and full-time associates, an educational foundation to help fund a variety of community-focused initiatives, and a Food Fence initiative that the community can use as a model for their own homes and businesses or simply take some seeds home from to plant anytime they want.”
The Fusion Farms facility itself currently has 20 full time technical and professional positions, with more facilities being planned to provide over 1000 jobs to locals. Here, the team “will be able to provide training, documentation, design, construction, operational resources, and guidance to other groups or entrepreneurs to help them establish their own facilities.”
As interest in Fusion Farms’ model is exponentially growing across municipalities in Puerto Rico, other Caribbean islands, and globally from food deserts, they are now providing tours of Fusion Farms every Saturday to allow visitors from around the world to experience first-hand what a Vertical Aquaponics CEA Farm looks like.
Email Michael to set up your tour or for more information. Reach out to the team via their website, or through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
