Danish Refarmed, led by Camilla Enge, will take a stand against long and CO2-emitting supply chains. Their vertical farm will send fresh herbs directly up from their production in the basement to the large kitchen on the ground floor. With fresh capital in the account from the Danish Green Investment Fund and the Growth Fund, the company will now establish their first vertical farm.
"Something as Danish as chives is often flown in from Tanzania, where distributors can buy the products very cheaply. I think there are many who are not at all aware of how big the carbon footprint the vegetables they eat actually is. Here, it is our ambition to change the way of thinking of Danish food suppliers", says Camilla Enge, CEO and founder of Refarmed.
Almost no packaging
Refarmed's first vertical farm is located in the basement of the catering company Jespers TorveKøkken in Søborg near Copenhagen. With only five steps from the farm to the manufacturer's commercial kitchen, they can deliver climate-friendly salads and herbs of far better taste and quality.
The ultra-short path from farm to kitchen also means that Refarmed can cut away most of the transportation and packaging while producing and harvesting only the quantities used in the kitchen. It provides significantly less food waste and better utilization of the planet's resources.
Today, many crops are turned into waste before they even end up in stores. The purchasing sector's push and pull culture and the long global supply chains are responsible for huge amounts of waste, CO2 and particulate pollution, says Camilla Enge: "There is really great potential in decentralizing the food system with more vertical and local productions out at the food suppliers. It is a bit like having your own private kitchen garden just around the corner, except that in our cultivation we have much greater yields, while we occupy less area, so that space can be given for more nature."
Right into the agenda
Refarmed has recently received fresh capital from the Danish Green Investment Fund and has also received a Covid-19 Start-up loan from the Growth Fund. The new capital will be used to establish Refarmed's first local production, and the many green potentials are one of the reasons why Denmark's Green Investment Fund has joined the financing.
Source: https://www.avisen.dk/
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