by
Mathew Howe (Image: Grobrix)
We all need to eat. It’s a requirement. More often than not, we eat meals together, and prepare food with friends and family. There was a time when we would grow food together too, as a community, and that would bring people together.
For most of us now, that time has passed, but at Grobrix, we think that’s a shame. We exist to try to rekindle that relationship between people and their food. At Grobrix, we run what we call a distributed farming network. The concept is new — I suppose you could say we’re farmers, except, while most farmers grow food at their place for you, we grow food at your place with you.
Mathew working together with those at Bytedance to harvest their indoor farm (Image: Grobrix)
The idea for Grobrix came after I started growing food in my home.
There was a time when my two girls were eating green pasta. Green pasta requires pesto, pesto requires basil, and I was getting my basil from the supermarket. It wasn’t particularly fresh or fragrant, so I wanted to try providing healthier produce for my family and started growing basil on my balcony.
An example of Grobrix’s soilless green wall system (Image: Grobrix)
Traditionally, little thought has been put into the aesthetics of indoor framing, so growing food inside was ugly and awkward. Most wouldn’t think it possible to grow food in indoor environments, where a pleasing interior is usually necessary.
I thought that if we could develop this equipment, maybe people would start growing food on the walls of really interesting places, like office pantries, hotel spas, or restaurant walls.
Grobrix and the office
The value propositions of Grobrix may not be immediately clear, but are quite simple.
The first is about community. When we work with companies in particular, our work helps them adapt to the new hybrid working environment. In the past, people would come into the office every day, and companies would organise an off-site once a year. This get-together would take place in an external setting, like a hotel, for workers to enjoy themselves and get to know each other in a semi-work setting.
Today, people don’t go to the office daily. When they do go into the office, it’s for specific reasons, whether this be for meetings, or to spend time with colleagues. In other words, employees now go into the office for an experience, experiences that would otherwise have happened at the off-site.
To encourage employees to come to the office, companies have to be intentional about the incentives that they offer. Grobrix encourages this ‘on-site is the new off-site’ movement to bring people back into the office by increasing the value employees get out of office days. Many of our clients align our visits to their establishments with their office days, so that employees can farm together with us.
Rule of threes
That brings me to the second value proposition: promoting wellness, both physical and mental. Eating fresh farm to table produce offers considerable physical benefits, while being around greenery and biophilic design is associated with mental benefits. Also, engaging in a community activity with others allows people to socialise, which provides physical and mental benefits.
The last value proposition is the sustainability narrative around what we do. It’s about reducing food miles and food waste, minimising the single use plastic wrappers that come from agricultural transportation, and helping companies neutralise their carbon footprint.
Each commercial partnership with Grobrix yields an average of 500 lbs of produce, potentially saving more than 500 gallons of water, up to 275 lbs in food waste, and 2,500 single-use plastic wrappers over a one-year period.
Sustainability myths
As I’ve spent more time growing food and looking at the environmental implications that our food systems have on the world, I’ve learned a lot about what is driving environmental degradation.
There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what is actually impacting the environment when it comes to our food systems. In the press, we regularly read about how a large part of the climate change equation comes from our food systems, but most people lack an understanding about why that is the case. They aren’t aware that most carbon emissions come from rearing livestock, or rice paddy fields. These are the things that really move the needle when it comes to food systems. While reducing food miles is important, it’s not the main thing we should focus on.
How to actually move forward
Instead, we need to work on creating a sustainable food system. The obvious solution is technological, where we employ many different types of farming techniques, such as indoor hydroponics, greenhouses, or conventional industrial and commercial agriculture methods. Presently, much of the technology is available, but we do need to find better ways of using it.
Aside from that, what is really important is changing our diets. I’m not saying that everyone should stop eating meat — I eat meat, though I eat it a lot less than I used to — I am saying that global appetites for animal products are going to have to change over the next 20 to 30 years, or we’re not going to be able to meet our targets with regards to Net Zero emissions by 2050.
At Grobrix, we’re spearheading this change by trying to engage the community and get them excited about sustainable agriculture. We’re trying to impress upon them why they should care about where their food comes from. This might be from a sustainability perspective, from a food security perspective, from a health and wellness perspective, or even from a community perspective as well.
Mathew Howe at Little Farms Serangoon with Carl Jaeger, the restaurant’s head chef, and the Grobrix harvest (Image: Growbrix)
The start of something new
There’s a number of hurdles that I have to cross before I can really change people’s minds. Some of them are not unique; they’re the usual difficulties that come with running a start up — starting your own company is not like a job, it’s closer to having a child.
However, at Grobrix, we face an extra high hurdle, as we created a category. As I mentioned before, we run a distributed farming network, where we grow food at your establishment, together with you. This concept is still very new and was started by us.
Because we created a category, it’s very hard to define how Grobrix should look and work. Let me give you an example: when you open a restaurant, you’re not creating a category. You might have some unique selling points that make your restaurant different, but at the end of the day, everybody knows what needs to happen. All of your customers know exactly what they’re expecting when they come; they expect a delicious meal, great service, and a good time. The playbook for how to deliver that experience is already written, after all, there’s many restaurants out there.
Something entirely new
The concept of lifestyle farming that we provide is different. It’s a mix between a workplace farm and a distributed farming network.
A Grobrix farm in an office (Image: Grobrix)
It’s really something that we pioneered here in Singapore. As a result, there’s been growing pains and teething issues that we’ve had to iron out, but we’re through the worst of it now. We’re ready to export the model and the movement to different countries, and are expanding to North America with our new partnership with US-based urban farming company, Green City Growers.
As we continue to grow, I hope we can really cement Singapore as the green urban agricultural pioneer that it is, and tell the rest of the world about it.
