Soli Organic Makes the Case for Soil-Based CEA
When the Virginia-based farming operation now known as Soli Organic launched 35 years ago, CEA in the United States was in its infancy. The company evolved along with the ag industry, transitioning from its field-grow-agriculture roots into controlled environments. Along the way, Soli cemented its reputation for growing affordable, high-quality, organic culinary herbs — and using soil as a growing medium.
Soli’s path forward is now focused on highly controlled, soil-based, indoor vertical growing operations, as exemplified by the company’s newly launched San Antonio, Texas, vertical indoor farm facility. Soli Organic CEO Matt Ryan talked with CEAg World about the business factors behind soil, CEA and the vertical farming sector.
Soli Organic CEO Matt Ryan | Photo: Soli Organic
Finding the best solution for each crop
Soli’s trek into vertical farming was driven by the desire to find the optimal production system for the company’s varied crops of leafy greens and culinary herbs — not the desire to be a CEA company.
“The journey that the company went on, long before I got here [in 2021], was from exclusively field-grown into starting to experiment with greenhouses and hydroponic systems and so on. Ultimately where we’ve landed is that the most efficient, best possible way is to grow indoors in soil,” Ryan said.
From Soli’s perspective, growing in soil is more efficient and offers better quality than other options the company explored. Some crops may forever remain field-grown, such as bay leaves and lemongrass, or stay greenhouse-grown like Soli rosemary.
“The crops all vary, but at the end of the day, most leafy greens and most herbs do best in vertical farm environments,” Ryan said.
Soli’s Soil-Based Farm | Photo: Soli Organic
Settling on the benefits of soil
Soli closed its last hydroponic operation last year after determining hydroponics couldn’t match the profitability of soil-based production and its benefits.
“Number one, there are a lot of crops that cannot grow well hydroponically. In fact, most herbs struggle in hydroponic environments,” Ryan said, noting plants naturally evolved to grow in soil rather than water.
“Growing in soil allows us to deliver just the right amount of water so that the plants are ‘stressed’ the right way, so that they put their energy into growing the leaf canopy as opposed to growing more roots. That translates to higher weights and better efficiency of the plant growth,” he explained.
Among the soil benefits he enumerated: the natural biome that helps keep pathogens in check. In addition, using soil positioned Soli to incorporate automation from the Dutch floriculture industry for the vertical farm.
“Our secret sauce is in the growing. It’s in the fertilizer production, it’s in the lighting — things that we do uniquely that are sort of trade know-how and certain patent-protected things that are different,” he shared. “But we also don’t reinvent the wheel, and those Dutch automation systems are incredibly efficient.”
Ribbon-Cutting at Soli Organic’s Facility in San Antonio | Photo: Soli Organic
Setting a new standard in San Antonio
Launched in June, Soli’s new San Antonio vertical farm is its most advanced yet. Unlike Soli’s first large-scale facility in South Carolina, the Texas farm has on-site packing operations, which speed time to market. The farm incorporates decades of lessons learned from field, greenhouse and indoor production.
Ryan shared that the new facility includes state-of-the-art lighting with a proprietary spectrum (which the company is proud of but doesn’t discuss in depth). Similarly, knowledge gained about seeding and harvesting equipment adds to the farm’s state-of-the-art efficiencies. Early production results are generating excitement for Ryan and the Soli team.
The 140,000-square-foot facility devotes 40,000 square feet to packing and processing. The remaining 100,000 square feet encompass seeding, germination and nursery areas, as well as a multi-layer production area comprised of six vertical tiers.
The multi-layer, as Soli refers to it, is the largest part of the facility. After leaving the nursery, plants on the vertically tiered tables move through the system before being harvested and sent to the packing operations.
Capitalizing on indoor soil opportunities
Soil’s focus on culinary herbs in concert with soil-based growing provides a unique marketplace advantage. Ryan noted opportunities include a greater range of products, improved product quality, and USDA Certified Organic status. He believes that growing organically elevates the product in consumers’ eyes and in product quality.
“We’re really excited about soil because it enables organic, and organic is what matters to the consumer, “Ryan said, adding that Soli expects to have the “the best unit economics out there for production” due to soil-based efficiencies.
As far as the more subjective attributes of soil-grown produce, Ryan shared that Soli hopes to prove there’s science behind claims of better taste, texture and more. While the company can’t discuss data yet, assays comparing chemical makeup of soil-grown plants versus hydroponics show variations that could account for taste differences. Texture and leaf thickness are also under study.
“We believe that the ability to grow the way plants were intended to grow, which is in soil, gives a different result from growing in water, even for crops that can be successfully grown in water,” Ryan added.
Moving indoors and expanding nationwide
With a few exceptions, Ryan said, Soli Organic is moving everything in the direction of indoor vertical soil-based ag.
“With the success of San Antonio that we’re starting to see, we know that we have the sort of rinse-and-repeat model at hand,” Ryan explained. While some tweaks are certain, San Antonio is the model Soli will use moving forward.
Ryan shared that the company has built a map for nationwide expansion that would allow its product line to reach every U.S. retailer. He acknowledges a few holes in Soli’s current national distribution, notably New England and California.
“We’re in 20,000 doors nationwide. Most of the top retailers in the country have relationships with us,” Ryan said. “But we also know that there are places that we need to build out our presence, and there are other places where we are currently servicing retailers with field-grown products that we would like to convert into indoor-grown Soli-branded products.”
An example? The Pacific Northwest — where, Ryan added, Soli has “very clear plans to establish a new growing operation.”