Science Behind the Method Village Farms is a leader in agricultural research and foremost in North America for developing improvements in greenhouse production technology. Our applied research division continues to invest tremendous resources in the areas of Climate Engineering, Plant Biology & Pathology, Entomology, and Ecology. For almost twenty years, Village Farms has been at the forefront of technological greenhouse innovation by developing creative solutions in challenging climatic environments. Village Farms has achieved and documented the world record for highest yield.

Partnerships Village Farms scientists are engaged in partnerships with numerous academic and applied research institutes throughout the world to test and implement new technology in our greenhouse production facilities. Our state of the art greenhouse system is, in continued development, employing an integrated approach of theoretical and applied research methods. The end result is an efficient system from seed to fork built on proprietary intellectual property with capabilities like no other in the world.

GATES Village Farms' "crown glory" in applied research is our Greenhouse Advanced Technology Expert System (GATES). GATES system was created to perfect vegetable and fruit greenhouse production in high-sun and low-humidity areas. Adjacent to our facilities in Marfa, Texas this revolutionary greenhouse is a combination of unique and valuable intellectual property. The entire project is a multi-million dollar investment developed using new concepts in greenhouse design technology, climate control, and crop management. Utilizing new combinations of hardware, software, sensors, and control systems, GATES technology has defined industry standards in advanced food safety principles, production levels, and environmental stewardship values for greenhouse production.

GATES CAPABILITIES GATES 365 day production of high quality fruit providing 100% fulfillment of customer requirements. GATES contained environment excludes all outside pests while inside pests are controlled with IPM (Integrated Pest Management), making GATES production 100% insecticide free. GATES production levels are 60% higher than average greenhouse production. GATES yield 20-30 times more product per acre than conventional field production GATES technology achieves lowest price per pound in the industry today. GATES uses 100% of water with no waste and recycles 100% of irrigation drainage to conserve water and fertilizer. GATES is designed to use waste heat to warm the greenhouses. GATES is designed to recover CO2 from boiler and power plant exhaust to utilize plant for increasing crop growth. GATES uses 3 types of evaporation to cool and humidify the greenhouse. GATES water efficient growing system for tomatoes requires 1/7th of water usage, compared to field grown tomatoes, further translating into an 86% savings in water usage. GATES has the most sophisticated plant monitoring available, including cameras, plant temperatures, water uptake, and growth rates. These measurements are all minute by minute in real time. GATES uses the plant measurements and software models to fine tune the greenhouse conditions GATES technology can be transferred to high density population centers, therefore, reducing ‘food miles’ and thus the overall carbon footprint. GATES can harvest solar power from excess sun radiation and convert to electricity.

For further information please contact Village Farms Production and Development and Applied Research Divisions 195 International Pkwy. Suite 100 Heathrow, FL 32746 T: 407-936-1190 F: 732-440-1305 Paul Selina, Vice President Applied Research