KENOSHA, Wis. — Walking through the Square Roots facility in Kenosha only takes a minute or two – it’s 20 shipping containers stacked on top of each other.
But don’t let that compact size fool you. This farm is putting out a lot of produce.
“One thousand, seven hundred and fifty pounds of produce per week,” says production manager Andrew Basinger.
That translates to a hundred and fifty million pounds – and nearly two million storage clamshells – every year.
Basinger says they all contain “salads, basil, dill, parsley and cilantro.”
These vertical growing walls allow square roots to stuff even more into that small footprint – which saves a lot of energy. Operations manager Hank Kim says the facility also uses a closed-loop water system.
“We irrigate the water for the plants and collect the water from the bottom and bring it back to our water tank,” Hank says. “So, through the hydroponic system, we’re able to save about 95% of the water, compared to traditional farms.”
Hank and Andrew control every aspect of the growing environment – from what’s in the water to the weather in the growing room.
“For example, this room… it’s pretty warm in here and that’s because basil thrives in a warmer temperature,” Hank says.
The system makes for produce that is practically perfect – and there’s never any loss in productivity.
“We can pretty much build a farm where there’s contaminated soil or have very extreme weather conditions because we can really control the environment inside,” Hank says.
In fact, farmers never even touch any of the crops without gloves on. Everything is super clean.
“Food safety is a huge part of our culture here,” Andrew says. “I’m in a whole outfit that we have to do a scrub in process for to be food safe, food ready, and make sure that none of our product is getting contaminated.”
Square Roots utilizes trucks from partner Gordon Food Services to get that food to customers as quickly as possible – which preserves nutrients and taste. Andrew says on top of being sustainable, farming like this can also help address food deserts.
“It makes me feel really great, especially here in Wisconsin, where we have some really harsh winters,” he says. “We’re able to produce basil year-round and we’re able to produce the same amount every single week.”
Hank says the fact that it tastes so good is just a bonus.
“I eat my products every single day!”
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