US: “You can’t just plug in the same playbook from one farm to the next”

"Scaling a vertical farm isn't about doubling square footage and calling it a day. It's about layering experience, data, and constant iteration into every decision. That's how you turn a startup into a system you can rely on," says Tisha Livingston, 80 Acres Farms co-founder and CEO of Infinite Acres, the company's technology-focused subsidiary.

When Tisha and 80 Acres Farms co-founder and CEO Mike Zelkind started the company with a refurbished reefer container in 2015, they envisioned setting up a full-scale food manufacturing company with a nationwide footprint. Today, with multiple large-scale facilities and a presence across key US markets, 80 Acres Farms is well on its way to live up to that vision, bringing CEA to the forefront of national food production.

VerticalFarmDaily went down to Florence to visit their newest facility. Click here to view the photo report.

Built on predictability
80 Acres Farms' retrofitted facility in Florence (KY) and self-constructed facility in Hamilton (OH), every detail, from airflow to software, is built to create a replicable model leaning on efficiency and profitability. When asked about the turning point for the company, Tisha didn't hesitate. "We built the Hamilton farm in 2019, and that's when we shifted into operating like a manufacturing plant," she said. Standardizing everything inside the farm, the founders are big fans of predictability.

Despite its size, the 70,000 sq ft (6500 m2) Hamilton facility delivers a neat 1.5 million pounds (680,400 kilograms) annually. The Florence farm, with 200,000 sq. ft. (18,600 m2) of production space, now offers 4 to 5 million pounds (1.8 to 2.3 million kilograms) of produce annually.

Click here to view the photo report.

Reaching profitability
"We've been profitable for 18 months straight, allowing us to move beyond discovery and into something repeatable," Tisha shares proudly. The Florence farm serves as a blueprint for the future. It is 80 Acres Farms' most automated facility to date, used to demonstrate how to scale technology without compromising product quality. Integrating its intelligence system across every operational layer, everything can be monitored at the crop level.

"At scale, everything changes," John Beech, Senior Manager, Data Analytics, warns. "You can't just plug in the same playbook from one farm to the next. Through GroLoop, our data platform, we can centralize operational and agronomic data to make real-time decisions," he says. GroLoop also helps align supply and demand, minimize excess production, and reduce waste.

According to John, it's not just about growing. "It's about growing the right things, at the right time, in the right way," he says, pointing to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) integration as a key advancement. The platform combines traceability and financial monitoring with growing data. "This is a common practice in food manufacturing, but not so much in ag. That dual-layered visibility is our backbone," Tisha adds.

Click here to view the photo report.

'Growth is intelligent decision-making'
CEO Mike Zelkind points out that the company's growth has always been about intelligent decision-making, "just like they do in food manufacturing." "You must reach a certain scale before retail partners take you seriously. But scale doesn't mean chaos. It means discipline. Our farms are designed to mimic industrial food production while maintaining the nuance of farming."

Gains in one grow zone or batch are quickly applied to others, creating an integrated learning loop. Mike emphasizes the importance of this constant adaptation, noting that it's impossible to understand how something will perform at scale without it. "We build in a period of adoption, analyze what works, and keep what's valuable."

With the recent acquisition of Kalera's farms, 80 Acres Farms aims to benchmark its cultivation systems and software for retrofitting into existing facilities. The Florence farm has already proven this model's success, but each new site must demonstrate its results. "We're not just growing greens, we're manufacturing predictability. We're excited to see what the future holds, though we're not yet sure who will stand next to us," Tisha concludes.

Click here to view the photo report.

For more information:
80 Acres Farms
Tisha Livingston, Co-founder
Mike Zelkind, Co-founder
hello@eafarms.com
www.80acresfarms.com