Dec 1, 2016
THIS IS A REPOST OF AN INTERVIEW FROM 2016
Interviewees: Mark Freeman - Director of Microsoft Global Dining Services, Jessica Schilke - Microsoft’s Urban Farming Director
Interviewers: Andrew Blume, Henry Gordon-Smith
The idea for this interview arose when Agritecture.com contributors came across several articles on Microsoft’s involvement in urban agriculture. We were so compelled by the story that we reached out to Microsoft to learn more.
Andrew: Microsoft is a very large organization; tell us about your roles there.
Mark: You’re exactly right, Microsoft is a big company with a lot of things going on in all facets of what we do. I’m responsible for the dining program for Microsoft on a global scale, so my job is feeding all the employees of Microsoft.
Jessica: I am the urban farming director, so I oversee all of the hydroponics and microgreens programs here at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. My team takes care of all of our greens from seed to harvest. I also lead some classes here on the campus and work to introduce people to food related issues.
Henry: Welcome Mark and Jessica, we’re extremely excited about your work. How did your program evolve?
Mark: There’s an initiative at Microsoft called the Ingredient Revolution. The Ingredient Revolution is about where the food comes from, what’s in it, and how it’s grown. We at the food service started to step into The Ingredient Revolution by forging partnerships with local farmers, like our program called The Misfit Produce Rescue. The Misfit Produce Rescue uses the 40% of their crops that get discarded because they don’t look good. Our food service chops the “ugly” food up and put it in soups or stir fries – this allows the food to become a useful product. As these programs developed, we wanted to continue to learn more about growing food.
Once we opened that door, we quickly realized we didn’t have a clue because we are “food guys.” We cook burgers and make sushi, so growing food isn’t in our bailiwick. But we started to think - this may take off - so we brought on Jessica.
Andrew: Terrific stuff, Jessica can provide us with your background?
Jessica: I went to school to study aquaponics, permaculture, and hydroponics. My passion is for controlled environment agriculture, a passion which is completely matched by the dining services. I was a bit hesitant the program might just be greenwashing, but I quickly realized Microsoft is really committed to fresh vegetables and reducing water usage.
Henry: That’s great to hear because a lot of the high tech vertical farms, don’t have that holistic permaculture approach. I am sure that your permaculture background helps ensure the farms at Microsoft remain sustainable.
Andrew: Good point Henry. Jessica maybe you can tell us more about the scale of your work?
Jessica: We started out with 5 vertical towers when I came on, and since then we have expanded out of 1 single location to 15 different locations. We grow our produce in the cafes themselves and at some market locations. Right now we are looking at 3,700 heads of lettuce on the floor across campus and we have 7,000 plants going at any given time. Our soil-based microgreens production is at about 2000 pounds annually and we are getting ready to increase that number again.
Henry: What type of growing infrastructure do you use for that?
Jessica: We use two brands of vertical towers, Foody Vertical Garden Towers and The Tower Garden. The towers work really well as standalone units that can be moved around and don’t take up much space. Then on the microgreens side, we have a back of the house grow room that we built ourselves. In that grow room the microgreens get started and germinated. Then, when they are ready, we move the young plants to our customer facing Urban Cultivators to grow the rest of their time. Finally, we have our aeroponic pyramids, which need to be plumbed in. The pyramids can have 864 plants sites, so they are much larger and serve as the centerpiece of a café.
Mark: To color in the numbers a bit more, here at our Redmond Campus we have about 50,000 people on the campus - so it’s basically a small city. We have about 90 areas where people can get food: food trucks, cafés, espresso stands, full service restaurants, and we have a pub. So the volume of lettuce that we are growing, in a scaled sense, is a relatively small portion of our demand.
Andrew: Meeting such a large demand sounds like a challenge. What other challenges have you faced in getting your program to where it is?
Jessica: Beside the normal things that come with hydroponic and controlled environment farming, the decentralized model of our campus brings us challenges. It is difficult to monitor all of our different locations and to get the most information and feedback about what is going on with our sites.
Henry: Challenges with monitoring and remote management is something we are seeing across the industry. Sensors are an area where there is a really great need for innovation. Are you doing anything to encourage local employees to get involved and help you track the data?
Jessica: I’m not sure how much we can talk about our work there, but what I can really point to is that Microsoft is a really exciting place to be because there is an availability of minds. We have an outreach program called garage groups where people hack on their passions. Our “urban farming garage group” comes together to learn about problems facing agriculture and to think about ways technology can provide solutions for those problems. It always amazes me being around so many talented individuals that are also so passionate.
Andrew: Sounds like a great opportunity to collaborate. What do you attribute all the interest in the garage group to?
Mark: The plants are so visible in our cafes that they end up marketing themselves. It’s funny, when we first put the towers up, people were coming in and taking selfies with the plants. It was so different from what people are used to seeing, and so we played to that.
Jessica: People like to see the plants because they understand these plants are using less water and reducing the transportation miles while also bringing fresh air and life to the space. Then on top of that, here at Microsoft, our customers find the technology aspects of growing particularly interesting.
Andrew: We have seen similarly positive responses to hyperlocal food in other parts of the industry. Do you think this is something restaurants around the world could do?
Jessica: I think for restaurants, hydroponics and aquaponics are such an amazing piece. I believe we are going to see a lot more of them in restaurants even in the next few years.
Mark: I agree, we have seen very positive responses in our dining services. Customers come in and see us growing all this fresh lettuce, and all of a sudden everything that they see is fresh. The living plants sets a tone that, when people walk into the cafes or the markets, their food is fresh.
Andrew: I’d be delighted to see this trend catch on in my local restaurants. What’s Microsoft’s future in controlled environment ag?
Mark: Our mission at Dining Services is to continue making sure the food is as high of quality as we can get it and that it comes from sustainable resources and farmers who are doing it right. As far as the growing operation, we are just doing a small portion of our demand, so we want to continue to expand. We will also continue to learn and open doors that may be closed right now related to relationships that Microsoft has in the agricultural world. Where that takes us, who knows?
What we do know, is that we will continue to do as we all do around Microsoft: solve problems. We want our projects to be sustainable, water efficient, and with as little a carbon footprint as possible so we can help out with all the things that may be going on out there in the world.
Andrew: Thats very admirable, the Association for Vertical Farming shares your mission and appreciates your work towards this movement.
