Vertical Hydroponic Farming in The Bahamas | Eeden Farms | Soil-Free & Sustainable Agriculture

Paradise. The most beautiful little country in the world. We are known globally for our sun, sand, and sea. We have some of the most beautiful natural resources anywhere in the world. Even with that, we still lack food security. Because we can only be as strong as what we put in us. The history is extending about four to five years back. It was founded by Lincoln Deal. At that time, I dubbed it Project Eden. It was a project focused on the agricultural sector in the Bahamas. Last year, with the beginning of the pandemic with COVID-19, we started to realize that the world was closing. And what that meant was that our food supply chain was a bit flawed. My business partner, Carlos Palacios, we're looking at what opportunities existed to be able to pivot out of what we currently do. It sounded exciting. And so I said, send some information over. And five weeks later, we had the first hydroponic farm in the Bahamas. So hydroponic farming has been around for a while. Countries that have extreme climates have often been a part of it. And you'd think that in the tropics where we live, that it's just easier to plant outside. But it's not. So over the years, we've found that agriculture has been something we've talked about as a people. But we've not been able to really successfully build an industry. Eden Farms, Bahamas. We're the pioneers of vertical hydroponic containerized farming systems in the Bahamas. And basically, we grow over 500 varieties of fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, 365 days out of the year in a climate-controlled environment. We brought our first container in back in June. Upon landing the container, obviously, there was a learning curve. It's not just as easy as going by a container to put it on the ground. And the science behind the Eden Farms is really spectacular. So pivots with startups always involve understanding the system. We took a few weeks, a few months, rather, just learning the technology. You know, I continuously congratulate our environmental team. I have been excited from day one, walking into the farms. It was a really huge learning curve to understand, basically, how to optimize the system for plant health. We can mimic the natural environment, supply the plants with the essential nutrients it needs to carry out the vital developmental processes in terms of photosynthesis, in terms of respiration. In this controlled environment, we're able to grow without any herbicides, without any pesticides. We can supply it with LED light by maximizing on the light frequencies that plants utilize for photosynthesis. We also can increase the amount of carbon dioxide, just increase the rate of growth. All in a climate-controlled environment, using only five gallons of water per day. And we grow the best here. Some of the things we're finding is that the demand for such high-quality product is there. It's exciting to see the local restaurant owners purchasing our produce. And it's even more exciting when they come into the farm and actually see what they're going to be working with. I was at a private function about a few weeks ago. And I saw one of the chefs that now use our produce. And we went to the buffet line. And it was so humbling just to see our grains all lined up. And the quality. And you taste it when you bite into those leaves, when you see it on the tables at our restaurants. And it also allows us to be exporters. I've been in the business now some 34 years. And as I transition into my own business, what I've discovered is that that freshness, that quality as a chef that you've been used to working with over the course of your life. Sometimes you might think you could only find that internationally. But I'm so excited that I've met Lincoln Deal and had an opportunity to tour the farm. Man, I'm excited as a chef to bring some of that freshness that I'm used to working with all of my life and just introduce that to the local Bahamian market and the local cuisine. So seeing that being served at restaurants just fills me with so much joy. I love packaging them. They're so big and crispy and green. It just fills me with excitement. I love to see that. And we're not just thinking about Nassau. We realize that the food shortages expand throughout the Bahamas. Many people forget my whole family is from Inagua, right? Which is the southernmost island in the Bahamas. By the time they get produce, it's only a limited amount that's either good or a limited amount they can get. So now if we can, through our mobile systems, bring fresh produce to the islands, it takes the level of support and the level of health consciousness to something that we've never seen before. The technology, the know-how is at our disposal. You know, the destiny that we chart for the Bahamas is within us to make happen. And being a pioneer of this kind of system in the Bahamas and being a woman, it's very crucial and very important. And I definitely took that into account. In fact, my daughter, she comes to help from time to time. It's exciting to see that it's not something that's so technical that nobody can help, only certain PhD scientists like that. It's not that at all. My daughter now takes her experiences here, goes to her school and now communicates. Now you hear it on the street from her friends or her friend's parents. Because there's a perception of what agriculture looks like in the Bahamas. You know, we imagine acres of land, lots of dirt, soil, hot sun. We actually grow in a controlled environment with air conditioning, using technology, using Wi-Fi, and we also control it from our smartphones. I feel like anyone with a desire to work in this kind of facility, in this kind of environment can take charge and feel confident within themselves, no matter who they are, no matter how old they are. So we're extremely huge on internships, giving other young people that have an interest in agriculture an opportunity to work along with us. It's important that we do this now because we need to be able to secure a future for our kids. I would love in a few years to tell my son that even though there was a pandemic, I was thinking about you. A big part of our vision at Eden Farms is to also make our containerized hydroponic systems accessible to all Bahamians. We will be providing opportunities for Bahamians to have a part in what we're doing and individual ownership in the containerized farming system. Attraction has already been enormous, and we're very positioned to be able to address the archipelago reality of the Bahamas. And I think the same challenges that we face here, as a small island developing state with climate change, etc., are the same challenges we have throughout the region. So continuing to provide high level and high consistent quality produce, not only to the tourism market, which you know is large throughout the Caribbean, but also to the local market, and allowing us to be able to help subsidize that quality way of life that has often been inaccessible to us or has been a challenge for us to achieve through food security and food health. And I also see the innovation with the technical aspect of the farms, inspiring young engineers to go abroad or to bring back certain knowledge that can help us develop a system that can be more acclimatized to our environment. I see Eden Farms as a company that aims to solve many of the agricultural issues in our country. The goal of Eden Farms is to embody this perfection in everything that it produces with the assistance of very tailored and specific technology. The additional E in the name, Eden, refers to the electronic aspect of our farming operation. We're adding the use of technology to the natural aspect of cultivating crops in an effort to achieve the level of perfection that our communities deserve and desire.