海角大神

This French startup has a trick to growing cheap, tasty strawberries in the city

The founders of Agricool hope to use their innovative system to grow crops more quickly - using less space and water - to bring affordable, tasty fruits and vegetables to urban centers. 

鈥淏eans from New Zealand, strawberries from Spain, Tomatoes from Morocco. Fruits and vegetables travel more than you.聽But unlike聽you, they don't enjoy it.鈥� This simple and amusing observation is at the heart of the French startup Agricool鈥檚 mission: to bring affordable, healthy, and locally-grown produce to urban centers.

The young co-founders Guillaume Fourdinier聽and Gonzague Gru聽are the sons of French farmers. Like the birth of most startups, their idea sprang from frustration with the status quo. 鈥淲hen we moved to Paris for school, we couldn鈥檛 find food that tasted like the food from home,鈥� says Guillaume. 鈥淓specially strawberries.鈥�

Even the strawberries grown in the Brittany region of France, just three hours from Paris, didn鈥檛 taste right. 鈥淓verything grown in France goes through Rungis (the Paris wholesale market), so there is too much time spent in transportation, storage, and packaging鈥�all of the compromises are made on taste.鈥�

Using what they learned studying agriculture and business, they searched for a way to produce affordable, tasty, and healthy food right in the city. To maximize efficiency, profitability, and urban space constraints, they focused on plant density and absolute control of the environment. 鈥淚f you want affordable strawberries in the city you have to grow dense鈥攁s many as possible in a small space,鈥� says Guillaume.

They came up with the concept of the 鈥淐ooltainer,鈥� which grows food inside recycled shipping containers. The strawberry plants are planted vertically and watered by a closed-circuit drip system, with LED lights mimicking the June sunshine. 鈥淲e light the Cooltainer from聽7 a.m鈥�11 p.m., so they grow more quickly,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭hat way, we harvest four times instead of once or twice, so altogether we should be able to produce seven tons of strawberries per year in just 30m虏聽instead of 4000m虏 on a farm.鈥� And they can achieve this using 90 percent less water.

In October, they parked their prototype Cooltainer at Bercy Park in Paris鈥檚 12th arrondissement, receiving a lot of attention from the press and curious Parisians hoping to score fresh strawberries. But Guillaume is quick to note that they are still in the experimental phase. The Cooltainer is its own contained ecosystem, which presents particular challenges. There is a hive of bumble bees to pollinate the plants, but there are also pests like aphids that need to be controlled聽without using pesticides. 鈥淧eople say, 鈥業n agronomy when we do that normally we use this, but I don鈥檛 know if it will work in the Cooltainer,鈥櫬爏o we have to invent and test everything,鈥� says Guillaume. 鈥淲e are both sons of farmers, so we have a good sense of how to grow something, but we鈥檙e not experts on agronomy or engineering,鈥� he explains. Fortunately, the press attention and support from the eco-minded Paris City Hall have helped Agricool raise enough funding to start hiring the experts they need.聽

鈥淥nce we have perfected the strawberry Cooltainer,聽we鈥檙e going to try tomatoes and then lettuce, which is really easy to grow.鈥� When these prototypes are ready鈥攎id-2016 is the target date鈥攖hey hope to create a network of Cooltainers in and around the city, each independently run by a full-time urban farmer but organized by Agricool. 鈥淪o maybe you could have 2000 of these around the Parisian suburbs, where the food is harvested and delivered locally on demand鈥�like Uber for agriculture,鈥� says Guillaume.

Optimistic about the viability of their startup, potential urban farmers from all over the world have already signed up at Agricool鈥檚 website to receive information about getting a Cooltainer in their city. 鈥淲e want to get local, affordable fruits and vegetables to urban centers around the world, not just Paris."

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