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Bright Farms: A Produce Supply Chain Revolution

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Locally Grown...On The Supermarket Roof?

"These days, we grow produce for travel, not for eating" says Paul Lightfoot, CEO of Bright Farms.

What does his company do differently? They build greenhouse farms, on the property of supermarkets! They build on the roof, at their distribution centers, in their communities. They enable the stores to offer fresh produce, picked that day right on the property, for the same price as tasteless produce being shipped in from Mexico, California or Arizona. The shorter and vastly simpler supply chain enables them to be price competitive.

What a unique business model: Bright Farms puts up the money for these greenhouse farms. They build the facility, and train local farmers. The stores simply commit to buying the produce.

Paul Lightfoot passionately describes here the incredible potential this model offers to solve the major problems caused by our current agricultural supply chain model. It's a system at odds with itself, efficient and inefficient at the same time. It produces huge quantities of food at low prices. It holds up to travel just fine, but the taste and nutrition suffer. And of course, the current system is a voracious consumer of land, water, crude oil, natural gas and pollutes the earth every single step of the way.

What a beautiful solution! Since 2011, BrightFarms has partnered with 7 major supermarkets chains and has 7 commercial-scale greenhouses in development.


--Bibi Farber

For more on Bright Farms, see www.brightfarms.com

This video was produced by Ted Talks