Innovation

What makes Vertical Harvest so utterly unique is that it is able to speak to a vital community need via innovation at every level. Vertical Harvest will be the first project in Wyoming completely dedicated to serving our citizens with disabilities, providing a range of meaningful jobs for this population who at present have very limited work opportunities. In order to maximize the amount of jobs we are able to produce on a small site, we are going up, creating one of the country’s first vertical greenhouses.
In addition to creating unique life-long opportunities for an underserved population, Vertical Harvest will grow local produce for our community, extending its four month growing season to year round. Because hydroponic farming requires less water and less land than traditional field farming, researchers-turned-growers in some U.S. cities see it as ideal to bring agriculture to apartment buildings, rooftops and vacant lots. Vertical Harvest will add community value, efficiency and beauty to a small urban space.
With your help, we can move forward with this project that embodies innovation on many levels, and Vertical Harvest can serve as a model of what communities can achieve in small spaces.

Services

Vertical Harvest has the potential to impact the current training models for children and adults with disabilities. Wyomingites with disabilities want to work in and contribute to their communities. They want real, meaningful employment that pays a real, meaningful wage. Vertical Harvest will develop an employment model that will offer people with disabilities an opportunity for long-term employment in a customized, desegregated and naturally supported working environment. Nationally the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 72%, in Wyoming it is 78%. By prioritizing the employment of persons with disabilities, Vertical Harvest will do more than decrease this rate of unemployment, it will have a positive effect on an individual’s quality of life, as well as demonstrate the positive contribution to the fabric of the workplace.

The project will use cutting edge ‘vertical’ technology to increase the amount of food planted per square foot, allowing for the growth of produce in Jackson twelve months a year. At present, the growing season is less than four months. Vertical Harvest will reduce dependence on outside food sources with multiple benefits to the community: it will grow organic, chemical free crops that use less energy and water than field grown crops; fruits and vegetables will be grown locally and will not experience the vitamin and mineral degradation that produce suffers as it is transported. This means that Vertical Harvest will contribute to a healthy community. This year round harvest will be sold on site as well as to local restaurants, grocery stores and farmer’s markets.

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Vertical Harvest has raised approximately $100,000 through grants, private donations and fundraisers. This money has gone to pay our greenhouse engineer, architect and other consultants that has allowed us to come up with preliminary design of the structure and growing systems, mechanical needs, projected energy and water use as well as projected income and expenses. Our intent is to apply to the Wyoming Business Council for $1.5M in construction funding on March 1, 2012. Outside of this grant, we have two immediate funding targets. The first is to raise $300,000 for construction funding that goes beyond our current budget. The second is to raise $250,000 to cover start-up and operations for the first 6-months that we will be in business.  

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