FEAD partnered with Chicago Booth student Group, Net Impact, for a visit to the Plant,  a part vertical farm, part food-business incubator, part research and education space located in Chicago in a former meatpacking facility. We had a great tour and learned about a different and innovative approach to growing food.


From the Plant:
"From its beginnings as a 93,500 s.f. meatpacking facility, The Plant is being repurposed into a net-zero energy vertical farm and food business operation. A complex and highly interrelated system, one-third of The Plant will hold aquaponic growing systems and the other two-thirds will incubate sustainable food businesses by offering low rent, low energy costs, and (eventually) a licensed shared kitchen. The Plant will create 125 jobs in Chicago’s economically distressed Back of the Yards neighborhood – but, remarkably, these jobs will require no fossil fuel use. Instead, The Plant will install a renewable energy system that will eventually divert over 10,000 tons of food waste from landfills each year to meet all of its heat and power needs."