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Fancy a $790,000 hydroponic dream farm? · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I am your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, and today is a podcast only for those people
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  who have got at least a cool $800,000 in the bank balance.
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  So if you haven't got $800,000 spare, then this podcast episode is not for you.
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  Or you can listen anyway, go on then. So today I found a website that is selling
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  a hydroponic farm and it's on the market for $790,000.
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  That does not include the land, it is just the equipment.
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  It's a company called Amplified Ag in the US and they've got a turnkey,
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  which means ready to run, container farm operation for sale.
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  So Amplified Ag is pleased to offer a unique opportunity to acquire a fully
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  equipped hydroponic grow container facility.
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  Purpose built for high efficiency, leafy green production, this advanced facility
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  offers two flexible options. Relocation.
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  You could move all the components, disassemble them and relocate them to your site.
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  You would obviously have to pay for the relocation and the coordination of all that.
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  Or you could operate it at its current location, which I think is in Georgia, GA.
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  Is that Georgia? Americans, please let me know.
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  You could gain immediate access to a fully operational hydroponic system without
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  relocation. Perfect for those looking to start and expand production quickly.
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  You would also have to negotiate a lease with the building owner because these
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  are shipping containers, but there's a warehouse connected to it.
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  So what do you get for your money?
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  Well, you get nine NFT containers that can do 3,600 plants each.
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  You get nine NFT containers that do 3,400 plants each.
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  So let's quickly pause the podcast and do some maths on that.
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  That is 63,000 plants in total. You can grow at once.
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  So with a six-week lead time, how much profit would you have to,
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  how many time, how many lettuce plants would you have to grow to make back your
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  $790,000 that you put in?
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  Interesting question. I don't have the figures to hand because I don't know what the margin is.
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  On a lettuce you also have to work out your running
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  costs as well on top of that so it's also got one
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  propagation container which they describe as a vps container
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  which i have no idea what that means but i would imagine rather than
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  nft that's something to do with vapor the v perhaps an
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  aeroponic propagation system so one
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  propagation container to 18 full
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  growing containers for leafy grains so it's a vertical they'll
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  be they're vertically stacked within each shipping container and
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  then the the hvac system the
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  air conditioning is on the outside rather than the inside to
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  save on space they've also got a container that contains offices lockers entry
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  control points things like that and one sanitation container i guess for sterilizing
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  any crop that's coming in or out particularly out of the system so washing your
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  leafy veg because it's not cooked before it's used,
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  it's a big issue for food safety.
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  So Atlanta, Georgia is where it's located currently, so it's just plug and grow apparently.
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  That is a lot of shipping though, so you're going to need least.
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  Well, it's 18 shipping containers, plus all the other apparatus.
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  So you're going to have to ship around 25 shipping containers,
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  I would have thought, to move this. So it's going to cost a fair amount to move it as well.
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  So that's really interesting. This company, Amplified Ag, that's what they specialize
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  in, is this, the hardware and the software for vertical farms in containers.
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  And they were the first company to build a vertical farm inside,
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  onsite at a US correctional institution, otherwise known as a prison.
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  So the 1.2 million pound, million, sorry, million dollar indoor farm in South
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  Carolina, it was in a women's prison.
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  So it allowed inmates at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution.
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  Phone call, just pause the podcast there and answer this phone call.
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  There's a guy who said that I'd sold him some houseplants from Houseplant UK.
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  And that's not true because I don't sell houseplants so that's
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  my podcast yeah we were talking about the the vertical
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  farm that they installed amplified ag
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  installed at the camille griffin graham correctional institution
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  in columbia that was to grow and process
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  their own fresh lettuce in the prison's cafeteria sounds
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  fantastic doesn't it they always complain about prison food but i'd
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  like to go to this prison although not be allowed because
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  it's a women's prison so this 1.2 million
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  dollar facility could grow 48,000 pounds
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  of lettuce a year and if you
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  were on a 20-year stretch for a
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  serious crime then you would be eating a lot of
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  lettuce I would imagine unless they diversify into other crops so yeah also
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  they're going to teach people you know valuable skills so there's going to be
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  loads of vertical farmers coming out of prison with skills they can use so yeah
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  that was interesting don't know much about.
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  This company amplified ag so if you all know them
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  then get in touch and we could have a discussion about
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  amplified ag activities are they selling this because it's
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  a customer wanted it and then didn't want it or is
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  it one of these ones where we've seen boom and bust in
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  vertical farming and stuff like that so it'd be interesting to know the background to
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  this particular farm that's for sale according to their news section
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  it does look like they're active and they've got a number of things on the go so auburn
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  university i think that's is that in the it's
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  in the south isn't it at least i don't know which particular state it's in
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  i know it's big on like college football they've got a
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  vertical farm facility that amplified ag have installed in
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  may of this year so certainly something
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  they've they're looking at they've got a number of news articles going back
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  so they were so yeah certainly something that they are active
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  and seems to be one of probably now one of the market leaders
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  in food containers farming in
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  the us considering there's been a number of companies gone bust in
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  that particular area good thing about shipping container
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  farming although they don't look great you can't they
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  are a blank canvas so you can put your
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  logo on your company's logo over them so you can um
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  you can um use them as an advertising hoarding
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  almost as well as a place to grow stuff so in the right location they can they.
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  Can prove useful so yes i would certainly if i was you growing them in university
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  even though it's disadvantaged i would put a window in there so people can look
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  in and see what's going on because you know people are interested and it's a
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  it's a way of people looking into a production facility without causing.
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  Contamination biosecurity or pest and disease issues so that's that's it that
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  was that's hydroponics day for today just looking at a farm that was for sale
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  very rarely do you get access to,
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  figures you know of how much these things cost when they
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  go really expensive often they're hidden behind a oh
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  just inquire gives your email address and all your details
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  and we'll get back to you and a sales manager will
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  phone you and discuss your needs and all this nonsense but
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  at least they've you know had the the you
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  know saw the light and put the price on i'm sure you can negotiate on that 800
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  000 pound sorry dollar figure if you were really keen and interested so yeah
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  if you've ever bought something really big like that and you'd like to discuss
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  it a turnkey vertical farm then let me know that's been 100 products daily for
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  today until tomorrow thanks for listening goodbye.