(In)Formation

Because can be simple, easy, convenient, clean, accessible and close to your home. Can be implemented with success by everyone and for everyone from the age 4 to 104.

Growing veggies and fruits near your home with all the comfort allowed by the modern technology.

A Soft Farmer is someone that is able to comfortably grown its own fresh veggies in an easy and clean way, using modern technology to automatize the irrigation, the nutrients supply and the light conditions.

Soft farming allows you to take the farm to your home and be able to enjoy the pleasure of seed, plant and harvest without the annoying (sometimes painful) tasks of conventional agriculture.

Yes, a soft farming can be productive, growing vertically and controlling water and nutrients demands a soft farm can increase be very productivity even when compared to conventional agriculture.

The productivity improvements when comparing to traditional agriculture can be found when considering:

    ♦ amount harvested per unit of irrigation water used,

    ♦ amount harvested per square meter of soil used,

    ♦ amount harvested per unit of fertilizers used,

    ♦ amount harvested per unit of pesticides used,

    ♦ amount harvested per unit of fossil energy used on its grown.

Other measures of productivity less commons but with pertinence that will benefit the productivity of a soft farm when comparing to traditional agriculture are:

    ♦ amount harvested per amount produced,

    ♦ amount consumed per amount produced,

    ♦ amount harvested per unit of pollution generated by its grown.

Yes you can profit with your Soft Farm. Besides the initial investment the annual costs to maintain a Soft Farm are low and essentially related to buying baby plants and seeds, fertilizers and eventually some pest controllers.

The initial investment amount will depended on how automated will the soft farm be and can include a raised bed or a vertical pots structure, irrigation components, potting soil mixture, lighting, automatism to automatic control irrigation, fertilizers dispensers and so on. It is always possible to start with a small soft farm and will increasing its size and automatisms later.

The choice for materials with a long life cycle, will allow the amortization of the initial investment for a longer period of time and the future recycle of the soft farm components.

The food production may be kept for several years with only small annual costs, after the initial investment being made.

The profit will be the veggies picked that you can share with your neighbors and family and the pleasure and the safety of being able to produce part of your own food.

Are innumerous the advantages of producing locally at home:

    ♦ the safety given by the proximity and convenience,

   ♦ the possibility of harvest at right time for you (choose to pick baby plants or high mature plants, according to your taste),

   ♦ the ultra-freshness of a direct pic from the farm to the dish while keeping all the flavor and vitamin benefits,

    ♦ knowing how the food was produced (what was added, or not added, and when),

     ♦ the possibility of “escape for a moment”,

    ♦ … .

A home Soft Farming match perfectly the business with pleasure by allowing moments of personal scape rewarded with the harvested veggies basket.

We strongly believe so.

Children are natural an instinctive connect with plants. The soft farm provide a casual spots for complicity moments, to learn new things and technics, to share knowledge between generations…

The Soft Farming may provide some advantages to the children such as:

   ♦ increase the sense of responsibility,

   ♦ learn to make cause-effect associations,

   ♦ learn the appearance of fresh food,

   ♦ identifying seeds, plants and fruits,

   ♦ build a link with the nature,

   ♦ …

Small and medium-sized plants adaptable to confined spaces, such as:

    ♦ a wide variety of veggies such as spinach, lettuce, watercress, chard, arugula,…

    ♦ “fruits farms” such as aubergines, courgettes, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes …,

    ♦ leguminous plants such beans, lentils, peas, chickpeas, soybeans…,

    ♦ bulbs and tubers plants such as onions, beets, radishes, carrots, sweet potatoes,…

    ♦ shrubs and small trees of fruit such as raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, lemon, clementine,…,

    ♦ aromatic and medicinal herbs, parsley, coriander, basil, mint, peppermint, chamomile,…

    ♦ edible flowers such as viola, rose, fuchsia, squash blossom, nasturtium,…

In your home indoor or outdoor on any available wall with sun exposure, on the balcony, on the terrace, on the patio, on the backyard, on the outdoor garden, on a green house, on the roof top …. The more accessible and handy the better, the goal should be install the Soft Farming as close as possible to your kitchen.

Yes, it is very easy to become a Soft Farmer. For this purpose it will be necessary some outdoor or indoor space, some knowledge about plants that will be increased with time, and a farming platform allowing the control of the production factors, such as the irrigation, the potting soil mix, the nutrients supply and, in closed space, the temperature, the humidity and light conditions.

Modern technology allows the control of irrigation, nutrients supply, temperature, humidity and light conditions so that you can soften your farm and make ensure the success on growing veggies and fruits in a very comfortable way.

Using growing platforms such as raising beds and vertical farm modules will allow the access to the farm of those with conditional mobility.

Yes it is sustainable. Being able to produce food locally is sustainable and safe as it can mitigate the effects of any break on the fresh veggies supply.

Local production of veggies and fruits on Soft Farms spread across cities, can contribute to global sustainability because it allows:

♦ easing the supply of fresh veggies and fruits reducing the need for long distance refrigerated cargo, complex packaging and reduces the impact of an eventual scarcity caused by a rupture on the supply chain.

♦ greener the cities and improving the CO2 capture.

♦ precise irrigation will substantially reduce the water demand when compared to the water demand by conventional agriculture. The water savings can be as much as 90%.

♦  shifting the growing of veggies an fruits to cities will reduce the amount of barriers and traps spread through rural areas to avoid animals such as rabbits, wild boar, deer, blackbirds, …;

♦  waste reduction many plants (such as lettuce, arugula, chard, watercress, spinach, etc.) allow more than one crops before flowering. Having the farm close to home will allow the picking of the exact amount need. Proximity reduces waste;

♦ garbage reduction such plastic bags and packaging necessary to ensure the freshness after a long distance cargo;

♦ increasing the density of production (planting) growing vertically, with obvious advantages in space optimization;

♦ reducing the soil and water contamination by allowing the precise control of the use of pesticides on paved areas;

♦ diversification of plants being grown by promoting the spread of small vertical farms across cities, thereby increasing the overall resistance to pests and adverse weather effects;

♦ minimize the energy costs and pollution associated with the long distance refrigerated cargo of the veggies from the place where they are grown until the city where they will be eaten;

♦ relief the pressure to expand the rural areas with intensive agriculture to wild natural areas to increase the veggies growing;

♦ reducing the use of chemical fertilizers because a better utilization rate of fertilizer by plants can be achieved and will be easier to use organic compounds (fully composted);

♦ growing veggies and fruits by taking advantage of resources available in cities such as: paved areas abandoned and/or untapped, human resources, organic waste for compost production, rainwater collected on roofs, energy, proximity to the consumer, ....

Yes it can be helpful. Soft Farming should be simple and light but simultaneously productive. For any several crops, its growing in raised beds or vertical pots can achieve a higher production per square meter than its growing on the soil.

If a given crop can be grown in a raised bed or vertical pot, then it should be grown on this kind of platforms on the cities paved areas. By choosing to grown this crop on the city we are letting the soil, demanded for its grown, available for growing trees and woods, to preserve wild ecosystems, to create rural parks and leisure green areas or simply keeping the natural wild areas “untouched”.

From an individual perspective, a Soft Farming being simple and easer will provide the Soft Farmer with pleasure in addition to production.