Hyperlocal Produce for the Aspiring Restaurant

Imagine growing fresh produce for your diners in your restaurant space. You don’t need acres of land or a small garden plot. You don’t even need a farming team. This next-level, space-conscious amenity is possible with a vertical farm. 

Hyperlocal sourcing is a leading culinary trend-especially since COVID-19 exposed the vulnerability of the global food supply chain. Local produce is more affordable, more environmentally-friendly, and more delicious than food shipped halfway around the world. Plus, incorporating plants into architecture is the latest interior design must-have that will bring your cuisine to life for your diners.

What is Hyper-Localism?

When it comes to food sourcing, hyper-localism means growing produce nearby or even on-property. It’s the idea that focusing on specific community needs is healthier and more sustainable than globalization. To provide food reliably and sustainably to urban areas, we need to send food across town rather than across the world.

The downside of shipping is that fresh items don’t always arrive, well, fresh. Much produce ends up as food waste. What does make it to market loses nutritional value with each day of transit. On top of that, food transport is one of the top fuel-guzzlers of any enterprise. 

Growing the produce you serve ensures health-conscious diners the freshest, most nutritionally-dense greens possible-straight from your (vertical) farm. Aeroponic towers are an easy and space-saving way to grow. Each Copiana tower can produce more than 75 pounds of produce each year while taking up just a few feet of floor space.

All over the world, innovative restaurants are looking for ways to incorporate agriculture into their space. Take for example Good Bank, a popular Berlin restaurant that grows its greens along the walls of the dining room. Or AGreen Farms, an urban indoor farming operation that provides Philadelphia restaurants with delicate herbs and microgreens. Moyo restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa, uses produce walls as green design features to separate dining areas. 

Here in Atlanta, Copiana is the only company in the country that provides commercial spaces with aeroponic tower farms. Here’s our concept restaurant or greenhouse to demonstrate how Copiana sees the future of local food:

Why Grow Vertical?

Vertical farms grow fresh produce year-round, indoors or outdoors. Instead of growing on a single level, which requires lots of space and lots of soil, plants are stacked to make the most efficient use of space. Our towers can grow a football field’s worth of produce in the space of one  end zone! 

The major impact of vertical agriculture is that it meets increasing food demands sustainably while decreasing environmental footprint. Our aeroponic system requires no soil and 95% less water than a traditional farm, drastically lessening farming’s environmental impact. At the same time, we grow produce more quickly. Vertical farming solves many of the problems of the traditional farm: bad weather, disease, and pests are nonissues for aeroponic agriculture. And since our crops can grow where our customers live, work, and shop, we eliminate the cost and pollution of shipping our produce. 

Our aeroponic greens and herbs taste much better than conventional produce. The taste of a plant is affected by everything it experiences during the growth process, so by optimizing its nutrient intake and eliminating sources of stress, we grow a more flavorful, healthier, organic product.

How to Make Local Produce a Part of Your Restaurant

Copiana is uniquely positioned to bring the amenity of fresh produce to your restaurant. 

We’re looking to remake the food supply model in favor of hyperlocal, seasonal, year-round produce at its nutritional peak. We can do that anywhere, with no soil, 10% of the water, and 90% less space than traditional farming. 

Vertical farming works for all types of fruits and vegetables-anything that grows above ground. This means lots of greens and herbs, but also tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. We can grow indoor or outdoor all year long, and every four weeks or so, you’ll have a new crop of fresh produce. The best part? We do it all for you: installation, maintenance, harvests and events.

When diners can watch their future greens grow to maturity in your space, they become invested in your restaurant. Our towers build community. It’s something we at Copiana have seen time and again when we partner with a new office space, residential complex or restaurant.

Ready to take your restaurant’s food supply hyperlocal? Contact us for a customized aeroponic tower solution designed for your space and your produce needs.